I 

THE  WHITE  MAN'S 
BURDEN 


A  DISCUSSION   OF   THE    INTERRACIAL    QUESTION 

WITH    SPECIAL    REFERENCE    TO  THE    RE 

SPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  WHITE  RACE 

TO  THE   NEGRO   PROBLEM 


BY 

B.  F.  RILEY,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 
U 


"They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  speak, 
For  the  friendless  and  the  weak; 
They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

— LOWELL. 


THIRD  EDITION 


PUBLISHED  BY 

B.  F.  RILEY, 
BIRMINGHAM,  ALABAMA 


v  UNIVERSE 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

B.  R  KILEY, 

1910 


PRINTED  BY 
BEGAN  PTG.  HOUSE 
CHICAGO,  ILL. 


fig£I 


TO   ALL 
LOVERS   OF   RIGHT   AND   LIBERTY, 

ALL 

FRIENDS   OF  HUMANITY, 
IRRESPECTIVE   OF  CLASS   OR    CONDITION. 


2201248 


"KEMEMBER  that  to  change  thy  opinion,  and  to  follow 
him  who  corrects  thy  error,  is  as  consistent  with  freedom 
as  it  is  to  persist  in  thy  error. ' ' 

MARCUS  AURELIUS. 

"THERE  is  no  ignorance  more  shameful  than  to  admit 
as  true  that  which  one  uoes  not  understand;  and  there  is 
no  advantage  so  great  as  that  of  being  set  free  from 
error. ' ' 

SOCRATES. 

' '  SIT  DOWN  before  a  fact  as  a  little  child,  be  prepared 
to  give  up  every  preconceived  notion,  follow  humbly 
wherever  and  to  whatever  abysses  nature  leads,  or  you 
will  learn  nothing." 

HUXLEY. 

' '  I  STAND  to  God  and  my  country. ' ' 

MOTTO  OF  THE  SCOTCH  LORD  ASTON. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION. 

A  general  review  of  the  work — Its  purpose — Advantages  en- 
joyed by  the  Author  in  its  preparation — Repression  a  failure 
in  all  governments — Prompt  action  demanded — Certain  dif- 
ficulties increasing — The  part  which  the  Negro  will  take — The 
interest  of  civilization  one  for  all  social  groups — England's  ex- 
ample— Conciliation  her  policy  for  more  than  a  century — Hon. 
James  Bryce  quoted 9 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Question  Stated. 

The  great  race  problem — A  critical  juncture  reached — The 
contribution  of  the  saloon  to  the  race  question — Corrupt  politics 
— How  shifting  changes  have  aggravated  the  inter-racial  ques- 
tion— Certain  sociological  elements — Futile  proposals — The 
Negro's  progress — Compared  with  the  Hebrews — Negro  progress 
phenomenal — Surpasses  that  of  all  other  enslaved  races — A 
trumpet  call  for  aid 17 

CHAPTER  II. 
Genesis  of  the  Negro  Problem. 

What  it  is — It  began  258  years  ago — The  Negro  not  responsible 
— A  brief  survey  of  Negro  servitude— How  the  problem  has 
grown  from  the  beginning  of  slavery — The  discovery  of  America 
— How  it  facilitated  African  slavery — Both  North  and  South 
shared  in  it — The  Negro  a  passive  instrument — How  the  prob- 
lem ripened  f9r  two  and  a  half  centuries — The  Negro  not  a 
voluntary  foreign  immigrant — In  America  by  coercion — Who  is 
responsible?  28 

CHAPTER  HI. 
The  Higher  Law. 

Agency  of  Providence — Slavery  an  object  of  gain — The  hand 
of  Providence  shown — God  not  mocked — Cruelty  of  slavery  and 
its  fruit — The  ripening  harvest — Providence  reigns  above  human 
law — "Chickens  come  home  to  roost" — Treatment  accorded  the 
Negro  after  using  him  over  250  years — A  responsibility  on  both 
North  and  South — Injustice  done  the  Negro  because  he  is  one — 
Justice  must  ultimately  reign — God  demands  an  observance  of 
His  laws — Sooner  or  later  Providence  will  be  heard  39 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Southern  Negro  as  He  Is. 

A  calm  presentation  of  the  matter — Superior  and  inferior 
Negroes — How  that  was  demonstrated  on  Southern  plantations 
during  the  regime  of  slavery — How  it  found  expression  after 
emancipation — Negro  leaders — Men  of  force  and  character — Ac- 

5 


6  CONTENTS 

complishments  In  the  face  of  odds— Harbingers  of  racial  prog- 
ress— A  perpetual  Inspiration  to  the  race — Their  desert  of  en- 
couragement— The  middle  class,  or  yeomanry — Their  rugged 
character — Their  hope  In  their  children — How  impose*  on — 
Their  drawbacks — Peculiar  struggles — Mistaken  motives  of  life 
— Need  of  moral  direction — The  criminal  class — How  It  Involves 
the  entire  race  In  the  public  mind — All  held  responsible  for  the 
deeds  of  the  few — Our  duty  even  to  the  base  class — We  must 
lift,  or  they  will  lower 50 

CHAPTER  V. 
Are  We  Debtors  to  the  Negro? 

A  candid  consideration  needed — Prejudice  a  serious  barrier  to 
judgment — Misunderstandings — What  the  Negro  has  done  for 
the  white  race — His  industry  enriches  the  country — Seven  genera- 
tions of  whites  educated  by  the  Negro  slave — The  country 
transformed  by  his  toll  and  sweat — Turned  loose  without  a 
penny — His  loyalty  and  devotion  in  time  of  war — How  has  he 
been  compensated? — An  appeal  to  gratitude  and  justice — The 
Negro's  efforts  to  rise  to  better  things — Injustice  In  the  courts 
— Injustice  on  common  carriers — Dangers  thicken — We  cannot 
close  our  eyes  to  the  facts 61 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Negro's  Share  In  Building  the  Nation. 

His  loyalty  and  patriotism  during  the  Revolution — Crispus 
Attucks,  a  Negro,  the  first  to  fall  in  the  cause — Peter  Salem 
kills  the  British  commander — Prince,  a  Negro,  captures  Gen- 
eral Prescott— Negro  troops  in  the  Revolution— General  Jack- 
son's appeal  to  the  Negroes  of  Louisiana — The  Negro  during  the 
Civil  War— Chief  characteristic  of  the  Negro — Alexander 
Stephens'  "corner-stone  speech" — What  the  country  was  and 
is,  and  the  Negro's  share  in  its  development — Our  duty  in  the 
premises * 74 

CHAPTER  VTL 
Serious  Barriers  to  Negro  Progress. 

His  previous  servitude   against   him— Unrequited   labors   for- 
?*•         £ua  PTerlod  9f  Prejudice— Advantage  taken  of  his  con- 
lltion— The    Negro    in    history— His    success    disputed    at   every 
n  J?~^Hi:l   clalms,  unheeded— His   onward   march   of   progress- 
Bad  deeds  exploited  and  good  deeds  unnoticed — What  he  has 
been  able  to  accomplish 88 

CHAPTER  VTIL 

Value  of  the  Negro  to  Our  Civilization. 
What  Is  the  Negro  worth  to  the  country?— A  financial  esti- 

Ea^r?OWr  l]as^he,  Eroved  hls  value ?-Compared  with  other 
laborers— He  is  the  laborer  for  the  South No  other  can  tkkVhii 

&rCeJv^«rmheara°f  protehcti°n  ?°  «V  civiliZation_|rtrC01fgVaekaes0hnl 

>r  giving  him  a  fair  chance  in  life— This  is  all  he  asks— What 

*ndh^all£ad/  done-What  he  can  do  if  encoura|ed-A  help* 

and  not  a  hinderer-He  deserves  consideration-Shlll  he  have  it? 

100 


CONTENTS  7 

CHAPTER  IX. 

A  Force  of  Conservation. 

His  supposed  weaknesses  his  real  strength — His  lack  of  undue 
assertion  has  saved  him — Resistance  would  have  destroyed  him 
— Compared  with  the  Indian — What  the  Negro  has  endured — 
His  loyalty  to  the  white  race — His  adjustability  to  conditions — 
While  timid  and  docile,  he  has  succeeded — His  subdued  tem- 
perament— Never  occasions  strikes — Never  disloyal  to  the  flag 
— Has  compelled  recognition  of  his  worth 119 

CHAPTER  X. 
Negro  Womanhood. 

What  woman  is  to  a  race  or  nation — Negro  woman  no  ex- 
ception— Advantage  taken  of  slave  women — Vicious  prostitu- 
tion— Their  estimate  of  the  whites  as  models — The  sad  results 
on  the  race — Hope  of  the  Negro  race  reposes  in  its  womanhood 
— Industry  and  womanhood  —  Virtue  applauded — Virtuous 
womanhood  on  the  increase — The  idea  of  home — No  real  home 
during  Negro  servitude — The  idea  had  to  be  created  after  free- 
dom— Genuine  missionary  effort  needed 131 

CHAPTER  XI. 
A  Call  for  Christian  Humanitarianism. 

Are  we  conscious  of  our  obligation  to  a  race  of  millions? — 
The  Negro  is  here  to  stay — Shall  we  make  the  best  or  worst 
of  him? — What  the  South  is  doing  educationally — Prejudice  to 
Negro  education — Errors  exploded — Illustrations  of  unreasonable 
injustice  and  cruelty — Ethiopia  stretches  forth  her  hands — Race 
aversion  antagonistic  to  the  Christian  spirit  142 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Mob  Violence. 

What  it  is — How  It  began  with  the  Negro — Passes  original 
boundaries — Lawlessness  begets  lawlessness — Crime  avenged 
by  crime — Whites  are  falling  victims  as  a  logical  consequence — 
Grounds  claimed  for  lynching — Arguments  for  lynching  exploded 
— The  mob  a  menace  to  society — Illustrations  offered  in  proof — 
Tendency  toward  chaotic  conditions — The  Atlanta  Constitution 
and  Courier- Journal  quoted 153 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
What  Can  Be  Done? 

A  plan  proposed — A  national  movement  needed — An  organiza- 
tion with  appropriate  d_epartments — A  tremendous  and  difficult 
task — Our  civilization  involved — Illustrations  drawn  from  for- 
eign missions — A  concrete  situation — Intensely  practical  con- 
dition— What  can  be  done  for  the  Negro  for  the  good  of  both 
races? — A  juncture  of  eras — Demand  for  genuine  manhood — 
Senator  Revels  quoted — A  movement  fraught  with  promise — 
Will  we  recognize  our  present  duty  and  opportunity?  165 


g  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Sources  of  Encouragement. 

The  present  condition  Invites  to  benevolent  activity — The 
situation  encouraging— The  Negro  ready  and  responsive— A  re- 
formation possible— What  the  Negro  has  done  unaided— What 
he  can  do  if  helped— Negligence  and  prejudice — Destined  results 
— How  much  the  Negro  has  achieved — Unknown  and  unrecog- 
nized—Bishop Galloway  quoted— A  mistaken  course — Strike 
against  the  Negro  on  the  Georgia  Railroad— Its  lessons — A 
wholesome  judgment  rendered  —  The  press  quoted  —  Judge 
Lovett,  successor  to  Mr.  Harriman,  on  the  Southern  Negro...  181 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Groundless  Theories  of  Apprehension. 

Predictions  of  the  past  compared  with  the  facts  of  the  present 
— False  alarms  displaced  by  wholesome  facts — Imaginary 
troubles  unrealized — Facts  disprove  ill-founded  predictions — 
Worth  established  by  many  thousands  of  Negroes — Possessions 
of  the  Negro  identify  him  with  common  interests — Depression 
of  one  race  depresses  the  other — Negro  rivalry  a  bugbear — 
Social  equality  idea  ill-founded — The  value  of  the  thrifty  and 
educated  Negro — The  source  of  certain  apprehensions — Worthy 
Negroes  never  occasion  trouble — The  demand  to  make  more  of 
them  worthy  197 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Omens  of  Promise. 

Inspiration  derived  from  the  past — A  wise  leadership — Can  the 
Negro  be  relied  on? — "Still  achieving,  still  pursuing" — Senti- 
ment toward  the  Negro  race  gradually  changing  for  the  better — 
To  what  it  is  due — Reaction  slowly  setting  in — The  real  friend 
of  the  Negro — The  National  Negro  Business  League — What  it 
has  done  for  the  race — The  Clifton  Conference— Mr.  W.  N. 
Hartshorn — Efforts  of  the  worthy  Negro  to  raise  the  fallen  of 
the  race — Ignorance  of  what  each  race  is  doing  a  serious  asset 
—A  calm  review  of  the  situation  needed— What  will  American 
Christianity  do?  .208 

CHAPTER  XVH. 
A  New  Demand  for  an  "Age  of  Reason." 

Dispassionate  consideration  needed— Certain  portentous  signs 
—Possible  dangers— Various  theories— Embody  their  own  means 
of  failure— Responsibility  supreme— Time  for  cool  action— The 
J-egro i  progressing,  not  receding— Friendliness  of  spirit— Respect 
MH£M  futu«;?-Spirit  of  the  Anglo-Saxon— Two  prospective 
civilizations— Now  or  never 218 


INTRODUCTION 

t> 

The  situation  in  the  South  has  been  presented  in 
the  following  chapters,  as  the  writer  has  seen  it  for 
a  period  of  years.  He  claims  that  the  advantage  of 
being  on  the  ground,  as  a  close  student  of  the  exist- 
ing situation,  gives  him  at  least  some  advantage  in 
the  presentation  of  his  views,  and  a  claim  to  be  heard 
regarding  a  problem  which  has  so  long  afflicted  our 
people.  From  its  numerous  sides  the  problem  has 
been  often  presented,  but  oftener  than  otherwise, 
from  view-points  of  prejudice  or  partisanship.  It 
betokens  signs  more  favorable,  however,  that  in  the 
most  recent  works  which  have  appeared  on  the  sub- 
ject, from  the  pens  of  representatives  of  both  races, 
sentiments  have  assumed  a  milder  and  more  assuring 
tone,  while  they  have  not  been  without  the  abatement 
of  firmness  and  candor.  It  is  also  gratifying  that 
the  extravagance  which  has  characterized  so  much  of 
the  literature  adverse  to  the  Negro  in  the  past,  is 
losing  its  popularity  among  the  people  of  the  South, 
thousands  of  whom  happen  to  know  that  many  of  the 
statements  which  have  been  made  are,  to  say  the 
least,  exaggerated. 

The  assumption  of  encouraging  proportions  by  a 
question  so  grave,  seems  to  call  for  a  more  compre- 

9 


io  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

hensive  treatment  of  the  vital  features  of  the  prob- 
lem. In  the  present  discussion  the  writer  has  laid 
stress  on  those  features,  instead  of  giving  a  summary 
view  of  the  entire  subject,  as  has  been  so  frequently 
done.  The  present  task  has  been  actuated  from  a 
genuine  desire  to  perform  a  humanitarian  and 
patriotic  duty.  A  son  of  an  original  slave  holder, 
and  a  native  of  the  South,  the  writer  has  been 
impelled  to  the  performance  of  a  task  which  has 
involved  a  painstaking  investigation  of  the  facts 
before  they  were  committed  to  record.  He  knows 
whereof  he  speaks. 

The  conclusions  at  which  he  has  arrived  may  not 
be  concurred  in  by  many,  but  they  seem  logical  and 
just  to  a  diligent  student  of  affairs,  and  to  possess 
some  merit  above  those  which  are  founded  largely 
on  theory.  Exceptions  may  be  taken  to  some  of  the 
views  expressed,  alike  by  representatives  of  both 
races.  This  is  to  be  expected  in  view  of  the  consid- 
eration of  so  many  phases  of  a  grave  and  momentous 
problem. 

Throughout  the  discussion  the  writer  has  been 
impelled  by  an  honest  desire  to  present  the  truth  in 
unvarnished  form,  with  studious  abstinence  alike 
from  exaggeration  or  extenuation.  Impelled  by  a 
spirit  of  absolute  candor,  and  divested  of  even  the 
semblance  of  passion  at  any  point,  the  facts  have  been 
sought  to  be  presented  as  they  are  known.  Around 
two  chief  facts  are  all  the  rest  gathered,  one  of 
which  is  that  the  burden  of  this  mighty  problem  lies 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  11 

at  the  door  of  the  white  race,  and  the  other  is  that 
practical  action  in  the  attempted  solution  of  the  dif- 
ficulty should  no  longer  be  delayed.  The  task  is 
undoubtedly  a  tremendous  one,  and  the  period  of  its 
performance  must  be  one  of  long  transition,  but  it 
would  seem  that  on  account  of  these  facts,  a  direct 
effort  at  solution  should  not  longer  be  delayed.  Con- 
tinued inaction  only  invites  the  possibility  of  fresher 
complications,  and  if  the  matter  is  to  receive  the 
comprehensiveness  of  attention  which  it  would  seem 
to  merit,  and  even  to  invite,  nothing  is  to  be  gained 
by  delay. 

It  must  be  clear  to  those  interested  in  the  situation 
that  a  policy  of  racial  repression  can  never  alleviate 
conditions,  but  the  rather  will  serve  to  aggravate 
them.  It  is  equally  clear  that  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  even  partial  solution  cannot  be  removed  by  bring- 
ing to  the  undertaking  existing  prejudice  or  precon- 
ceived notions  unfavorable  to  the  Negro.  Genuine 
magnanimity  from  a  stronger  to  a  weaker  race  must 
be  the  first  stepping-stone  in  the  ascent  to  a  final 
solution.  Notions  may  have  to  be  revamped  and 
opinions  changed,  but  this  should  not  be  difficult  in 
the  face  of  facts,  duty,  and  absolute  necessity,  all  of 
which  at  present  seem  urgent. 

With  every  instinct  of  his  being,  the  writer  shares 
in  the  abhorrence  of  the  atrocious  crimes  so  often 
claimed  to  be  committed,  but  he  sees  no  relief  by 
answering  crime  with  crime.  Every  one  should 
know  that  that  means  only  continued  aggravation 


12  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  demoralization.  Until  we  come  to  see  eye  to 
eye  on  a  tremendous  problem — until  we  approach  it 
with  calmness  and  dispassion,  nothing  can  be  done. 
Concession  is  not  demanded  by  the  present  situation, 
only  unbiased  consideration.  This  is  not  asking  too 
much,  seeing  what  is  involved  in  the  industrial,  edu- 
cational, political,  social  and  moral  aspects  of  the 
question.  While  the  Negro  must  not  be  remiss  or 
inactive,  and  while  he  must  work  out  his  own  des- 
tiny, he  cannot  do  so  successfully  without  'the  aid 
and  co-operation  of  the  best  elements  of  the  white 
race.  Because  of  the  complicated  relations  now 
existing,  the  aid  of  the  whites  is  indispensable. 

The  concrete  fact  which  confronts  us  is  that  the 
Negro  is  here  ten  million  strong  and  is  constantly 
growing  stronger  or  more  numerous.     No  matter 
who  may  now  wish  it  were  otherwise,  the  fact  re- 
mains.    We  must  not  toy  with  theory,  but  face  a 
fact — a  vital  and  mighty  condition.     If  the  question 
be  raised,  What  can  be  done  ?  let  patriotism,  philan- 
thropy, chivalry  and  Christianity  answer.     There  is 
no  hurt  which  can  come  to  the  Negro  without  seri- 
ously involving  our  civilization.     The  Negro  is  now 
so  interlaced  into  American  life  that  he  must  be  con- 
sidered an  important  part  thereof.     To  heed  the 
suggestion  to  let  things  drift  and  permit  the  matter 
to  work  itself  out,  is  only  the  putting  off  of  the  evil 
day.     The  better  part  of  soberness  and  wisdom  is 
squarely  to  face  the  situation,  realize  its  length  and 
breadth,  and  respond  to  its  demands.     The  subject 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  13 

cannot  be  dismissed  as  unworthy  by  a  taunt  or  sneer, 
for  it  must  remain  in  vital  and  inseparable  contact 
with  American  life.  Nor  must  we  lose  sight  of  the 
obligation  which  is  imposed  on  the  white  race,  which 
is  solely  responsible  for  the  presence  of  the  black 
man  in  America. 

To  contribute  to  the  interest  of  the  Negro,  is  to 
contribute,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  interest  of  the 
public  weal  of  which  he  is  a  part.  To  accomplish 
the  most  for  him  as  well  as  for  ourselves,  the  policy 
must  be  one  of  construction  and  not  of  destruction, 
for  a  policy  of  destruction  is  a  two-edged  sword 
which  cuts  both  ways.  Action  toward  another  or 
others  is  reaction  toward  ourselves.  We  cannot 
escape  the  fact  that  the  destinies  of  both  races  are 
inseparably  bound  together,  and  the  task  now  im- 
posed is  to  find  a  way  which  will  be  equally  produc- 
tive of  good  to  both  races.  Nothing  less  than  the 
development  of  each  race  will  produce  this  result, 
for  "manhood  in  a  democracy  is  the  essential  basis 
of  participation." 

To  claim  that  we  cannot  see  what  can  be  done, 
should  excite  to  diligence  for  a  proper  course  to  be 
pursued,  but  to  say  that  nothing  can  be  done,  is  to 
acknowledge  for  the  first  time,  in  the  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  his  inability  to  grapple  with  a  great 
problem.  The  wrecks  of  difficulties  overcome  and 
shattered  lie  along  the  centuries  of  his  history.  In 
his  aggressive  march  over  the  world  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  has  met  a  condition  in  America  unencountered 


i4  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

in  the  past  stages  of  his  history— that  of  fusing  into 
a  symmetrical  government  dissimilar  elements  under 
conditions  which  will  bring  them  into  harmonious 
adjustment  to  a  flexible  governmental  policy,  and  of 
according  to  each  his  due  proportion  of  liberty  and 
justice.  The  demand  of  the  highest  constructive 
statesmanship  will  be  needed  to  effect  this,  but  where 
so  much  has  been  done  by  the  white  man,  and  in 
ways  so  many,  the  task,  however  difficult,  can  be 
accomplished.  We  have  tried  the  effect  of  drastic 
legislation,  and  know  what  it  is.  This  has  always 
failed  as  a  governmental  policy,  even  where  it  is 
autocratic.  Force  may  repress,  but  it  is  like  the 
suppression  of  a  volcano. 

Long  ago  England  pursued  a  policy  of  repression 
and  coercion,  but  signally  failing,  she  wisely  turned 
to  a  basis  of  conciliation,  as  one  of  her  greatest 
statesmen  persuaded  her  to  do  in  dealing  with  the 
American  colonies.  She  is  even  now  encountering 
difficulty  in  a  conciliatory  policy  which  is  attempted 
in  the  federation  of  the  South  African  states,  where 
the  sullen  Dutch  spirit  so  much  at  variance  with 
British  rule,  stubbornly  resists ;  but  England  recog- 
nizes that  a  policy  must  be  discovered  by  means  of 
which  the  recalcitrant  elements  must  be  brought  into 
friendly  and  easy  relations  with  the  powers  that  be, 
and  she  will  not  fail  to  discover  such  a  policy.  The 
United  States  has  a  somewhat  similar  condition  in 
its  Philippine  possessions,  where  aid  of  a  substantial 
character  must  be  rendered  for  years,  and  the  court- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  15 

ship  of  a  friendly  spirit  must  go  on,  in  order  to  win 
the  natives  to  the  dominant  American  sentiment. 
Compared  with  either  of  these,  the  conditions  differ 
materially  with  respect  to  the  ten  million  Negroes, 
but  the  one  cardinal  principle  alike  underlies  all.  It 
is  as  the  Honorable  James  Bryce  has  suggested, 
"Duty  and  policy  are  one,  for  it  is  equally  to  the 
interest  of  both  races  (in  America)  that  their  rela- 
tions should  be  friendly." 

One  decided  advantage  seems  to  lie  on  the  side  of 
America  in  dealing  with  the  present  perplexing  ques- 
tion. Both  races,  white  and  black,  have  suffered, 
and  seriously  suffered,  in  the  transition  crucible  of 
long  years.  Like  all  suffering,  this  has  not  been 
unattended  by  lessons  of  value  alike  to  both  races. 
Each  understood  the  other  in  the  relation  of  master 
to  slave;  but  when  this  relation  was  shifted  to  a 
novel  orbit,  complications  arose.  Here  we  en- 
countered a  grave  problem,  and  it  remains  to  this 
day.  It  is  not  necessary  that  we  here  descend  into 
the  details  of  that  problem,  to  set  forth  which  in  its 
essential  features,  this  little  volume  has  been  written. 
To  meet  the  issue  squarely  as  men  and  Christian 
patriots,  is  our  present  duty. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  QUESTION  STATED 

For  almost  a  half  century  the  colossal  race  ques- 
tion of  the  South  has  absorbed  much  public  thought, 
given  rise  to  endless  discussion,  and  produced  not  a 
little  speculation  as  to  its  final  settlement.  The  com- 
prehensiveness and  manysidedness  of  the  question 
have  afforded  the  amplest  opportunity  alike  for  seri- 
ous thought,  fervid  debate,  and  the  wildest  specula- 
tion. The  "new  racial  cosmopolitanism"  induced  by 
the  sudden  transitions  which  followed  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War,  the  methods  of  its  creation,  and  the 
means  of  its  management  have  occasioned  sufficient 
friction  and  complication  to  produce  a  most  serious 
problem. 

Emancipation  with  its  attendant  consequences — 
the  delight  with  which  it  was  hailed  as  a  boon  by  the 
millions  of  the  enslaved,  equalled  only  by  the  dismay 
with  which  a  mighty  industrial  system  was  wit- 
nessed by  the  original  slave  owner  to  collapse;  the 
unpreparedness  of  many  thousands  of  the  late  slaves 
to  prize  the  meaning  of  freedom,  and  the  demand  for 
labor  on  the  farms  of  the  South  at  a  critical  juncture; 

17 


i8  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  hilarity,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  former  slave, 
and  the  sting  of  defeat,  and  sense  of  appalling  loss 
on  the  part  of  the  planter  on  the  other,  within  them- 
selves produced  initial  complications  of  no  mean 
dimensions.  But  when  added  to  these  were  other 
complications  which  dwarfed  the  former,  the  tension 
of  difficulty  at  the  South  was  at  the  highest  taut. 
No  matter  what  entered  into  the  original  conception 
of  the  reconstruction  of  affairs  at  the  South,  and 
there  were  no  doubt  both  of  vindictive  animus  and 
of  sincerity  of  purpose  to  accomplish  good — both  of 
the  plan  to  punish  and  humiliate  the  South,  and  to 
protect  the  Negro  in  his  new-born  rights,  the  result 
proved,  for  a  time  at  least,  disastrous  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  race  question.  The  occasion  was  pro- 
ductive of  a  brood  of  political  miscreants,  alike  from 
both  sections,  who  took  advantage  of  the  untrained 
masses  of  Negroes  by  arraying  them  in  hostility 
against  their  former  owners. 

There  is  another  element  which  is  invariably  lost 
sight  of  in  the  treatment  of  this  critical  period,  and 
yet  without  which  it  is  doubtful  if  the  breach  be- 
tween the  two  races  in  the  South  would  have  been 
so  serious.  The  drinking  den  from  which  the  Negro 
as  a  slave  was  restrained  alike  by  legal  statute  and 
by  the  severe  discipline  of  the  plantation,  was  one 
of  the  most  efficacious  factors  in  the  profound  dis- 
turbance of  the  reconstruction  period.  It  was  found 
that  the  Negro  was  not  easily  pitted  against  his 
former  master,  and  this  arrayal  was  an  indispensable 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  19 

adjunct  of  the  fell  purpose  of  this  unconscionable 
horde  of  politicians,  derived  alike  from  the  North 
and  the  South,  until  the  saloon  was  laid  under 
tribute.  In  recognition  of  this  palpable  fact  the 
Negro  leaders  throughout  the  South  today  are 
among  the  most  hostile  elements  of  the  saloon,  and 
never  lose  an  opportunity  to  deal  it  a  deadly  blow. 
Inflamed  by  cheap  liquor,  which  was  sold  at  every 
cross-road  in  the  South,  the  Negro  was  more  easily 
manipulated  against  the  white  race,  and  strife  and 
bitterness  were  more  readily  engendered  than  they 
would  have  otherwise  been.  This  bitterness  and 
strife  have  been  prolonged  into  the  years  of  the 
future,  and  have  been  the  occasion  of  creating  other 
difficulties  as  they  have  gone  on  their  way  through  a 
period  of  almost  a  half  century. 

These  statements  are  bare  historical  facts  which 
lie  on  the  surface  of  that  dark  period  of  Southern 
history.  At  a  time  when  irritation  in  the  Southern 
mind  was  fresh,  this  most  unfortunate  condition  was 
introduced,  and  had  much  to  do  with  the  dark 
troubles  which  followed.  Not  that  all  the  recent 
slaves  were  thus  easily  betrayed  into  the  hands  of 
the  saloon,  for  even  at  this  time  there  were  men 
among  them  who  deplored  the  condition  induced, 
and  who  threw  themselves  into  the  breach  in  loud 
protestation  of  this  inroad  of  vice  on  the  race.  The 
natural  anxiety  of  the  Negro  to  assert  his  right  by 
the  use  of  the  ballot,  which  assertion  was  stimulated 
by  the  means  already  named,  was  met  by  a  hostile 


20 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 


demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  who  were 
quickened  by  racial  antipathy  and  a  desire  to  pre- 
serve their  institutions  from  the  sway  of  the  un- 
scrupulous political  plunderer.     The  reign  of  terror 
which  ensued  is  known  and  appreciated  by  those 
who  were  in  the  thick  of  the  troubles  of  that  period. 
Another  element  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
Negro  entered  into  the  period  :     While  emancipation 
was  generally  recognized  as  a  fixed  fact,  there  were 
those  who  believed  that  the  proper  relation  of  the 
Negro  was  one  of  servitude,  and  that  out  of  that 
element  he  was  outside  his  natural  sphere.     The 
result  was  much  harshness  of  treatment  and  conse- 
quent disorder.     Even  at  that  early  period  there  was 
the  absence  of  discrimination,  as  between  the  good 
and  bad  Negro,  as  there  is  today.     The  good  among 
them,  of  whom  there  were  not  a  few,  were  forced 
by  an  indiscriminate  public  sentiment  to  share  in  all 
the  blameworthiness  of  the  worst.     The  continuance 
of  that  sentiment  has  acted  as  a  most  serious  barrier 
to  the  aspiring  Negro  since  the  era  of  emancipation. 
The  reference  to  faults  and  crimes  is  often  made  in 
such  way  against  the  Negro  as  a  race,  rather  than 
against  the  single  offender,  as  to  occasion  much  dis- 
satisfaction. The  manifest  unfairness  of  such  whole- 
sale allusion  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  those 
who,  in  exploiting  the  failures  and  shortcomings  of 
some,  include  the  many,  who  by  every  commend- 
able means  are  seeking  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  being. 
With  the  gradual  passing  of  the  last  generation  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  21 

slaves  and  slave  holders  came  a  new  crisis.  As  has 
been  shown,  a  broad  breach  had  been  created  at  the 
most  inauspicious  period  of  the  Negro's  history. 
Fresh  from  the  fields  of  bondage,  without  equipment 
of  mental  strength  or  moral  force,  poor,  with  natural 
ambition  benumbed  and  practically  obliterated  by 
long  servitude,  the  Negro  in  an  emergency  like  this, 
needed  a  friendly  hand  to  guide  and  a  kind  voice  to 
cheer.  His  was  at  this  time  a  race  of  dependence, 
a  people  in  their  childhood.  Could  it  have  been 
possible  for  the  passion  of  the  time  to  have  been  dis- 
placed by  friendship,  could  the  pretended  aid  ren- 
dered by  the  worst  of  politicians  been  wholesome 
instead  of  vicious  and  seditious,  could  some  seer 
penetrating  the  future  with  undoubted  sagacity,  have 
recognized  the  full  meaning  of  the  situation,  the 
condition  of  both  races  would  today  be  vastly 
different.  Mistakes  are  often  better  seen  through 
the  retrospective  than  through  the  prospective. 

Gradually  front  to  front  rose  two  generations  of 
racial  and  opposing  strangers,  the  one  inheriting  the 
assertion  of  rights  guaranteed  by  the  government, 
and  remembering  the  troubles  of  the  years  of  the 
immediate  past  with  not  a  little  of  racial  hatred ;  the 
other  resisting  such  assertion,  and  disposed  to  take 
advantage  directly  or  obliquely,  and  resolved  to  save 
the  institutions  of  the  South  to  the  whites,  there 
was  nothing  in  a  condition  like  this  conducive  to 
harmony,  but  everything  to  hostility. 

The  multiplied  events  of  this  second  period  were 


22  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

portentous  of  much  sad  disorder  and  demoraliza- 
tion for  which  the  immediate  future  stood  in  wait. 
With  these  troubles  the  public  is  altogether  too 
familiar  for  them  to  be  recounted  here.  New  com- 
plications arose,  collisions  were  frequent,  and  demor- 
alization ensued.  There  is  another  fact  generally 
left  out  of  account  in  presenting  the  elements  which 
entered  into  the  period,  and  which  the  faithful  chron- 
icler would  be  remiss  of  duty  should  he  fail  to  record 
it.  While  the  original  slave  holder  and  his  de- 
scendants were  in  the  main  actuated  by  a  sense  of 
pity  for  the  recent  and  often  misguided  serf  of  other 
days,  he  who  owned  not  slaves,  the  whites  on  the 
lower  levels,  were  the  inveterate  enemies  of  the 
Negro.  Between  the  two,  the  thriftless  whites  and 
the  slaves,  there  had  all  along  been  a  smothered 
antipathy.  It  was  as  customary  on  the  part  of  the 
slave  to  respect  a  slave  owner  as  it  was  to  regard 
with  contempt  those  whom  they  called  "po'  white 
trash."  Mutual  hatred  characterized  these  two  ele- 
ments of  Southern  society.  Seizing  the  occasion  of 
the  Negro's  crucial  hour,  these  old-time  enemies 
became  conspicuous  in  the  wreak  of  vengeance,  and 
with  no  knowledge  of  the  black  man,  other  than  that 
he  was  a  "nigger,"  many  of  this  class  of  whites  have 
been  demonstrative  in  their  opposition  to  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Negro,  and  to  his  general  welfare.  While 
this  does  not  admit  of  universal  application  to  this 
class  of  whites,  many  there  were,  and  still  are,  among 
them  who  cherish  hostility  toward  the  Negro.  In 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  23 

the  upheavals  of  fortune  and  misfortune  which 
have  come  to  the  South  in  its  era  of  transition,  some 
of  this  class  have  come  to  more  or  less  of  conspicu- 
ousness,  while  by  the  same  law  of  revolution  many 
of  the  once  wealthy  and  aristocratic  of  the  South 
have  receded  in  influence,  because  of  the  novelty  of 
the  bustling  times,  in  consequence  of  both  which  con- 
ditions the  Negro  has  been  made  to  suffer. 

Three  distinct  propositions  were  eventually 
evolved  from  the  chaotic  conditions  following  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War.  One  of  these  was  that  of 
the  disposal  of  the  Negro.  That  he  was  valuable 
as  a  laborer,  and  that  he  was  the  only  available 
laborer  for  the  plantations  of  the  South,  every  land 
owner  recognized.  While  he  was  not  desired  as  a 
citizen,  he  was  as  a  laborer.  Citizen  or  not,  he 
must  be  retained  to  cultivate  the  soil,  for  which 
he  was  admirably  adapted  and  for  which  he  had  been 
trained  and  tried.  The  muscle  of  the  Negro  had 
much  to  do  with  saving  him  from  sorer  troubles 
than  those  which  he  had  to  undergo.  That  fact 
conjoined  with  a  sense  of  protection  in  the  breast  of 
many  a  Southerner  interposed  in  his  behalf. 

Another  proposition  was  that  of  adopting  such  a 
course  of  humanity  as  to  be  considerate  of  the  claims 
due  the  Negro,  and,  at  the  same  time,  preserve  the 
well-being  of  society.  While  there  were  those,  and 
still  are,  who  oppose  his  intellectual  advancement, 
there  was  a  preponderance  of  Southern  sentiment 
which  favored  it,  else  the  Negro  would  never  have 


24  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

had  a  school,  for  the  old  threadbare  tradition  has  not 
ceased  to  prevail  with  a  certain  class  in  the  South, 
that  education  would  mean  the  Negro's  undoing. 

A  third  proposition  had  respect  to  the  general 
healthfulness  of  the  tone  of  the  American  nation, 
and  such  an  adjustment  of  the  new  order  as  would 
bring  to  pass  that  condition.  In  the  very  nature 
of  the  case,  the  nation  is  to  be  more  or  less  affected 
by  the  outcome  of  the  Negro  question.  Tasks  like 
these  were  the  ones  to  which  the  sage  wisdom  of  the 
states  of  the  South  set  itself.  As  time  has  passed, 
the  situation  has  been  one  between  repression  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  construction  on  the  other.  To 
repress  the  Negro  and  deny  him  the  most  ordinary 
rights,  even  the  right  of  working  for  a  livelihood 
excepting  under  servile  conditions,  represents  one 
element  of  Southern  sentiment;  to  rehabilitate  and 
construct  a  new  system,  one  adjusted  to  the  demands 
of  existing  conditions,  leaving  the  Negro  untram- 
melled to  shape  the  destiny  of  his  numerous  and 
growing  race,  in  a  region  in  which  he  is  an  un- 
doubted fixture,  is  representative  of  another  senti- 
ment of  the  South. 

Meanwhile  the  Negro,  himself,  has  not  been  inac- 
tive in  contributing  to  the  solution  of  the  difficulty 
and  in  affording  omens  which  serve  in  no  small  way 
to  brighten  the  future.  To  the  surprise  of  all,  even 
of  his  most  expectant  and  sanguine  friends,  he  has 
produced  a  leadership  of  great  and  surprising  worth. 
Ambitious  and  worthy  spirits  even  from  the  stripling 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  25 

class  of  young  slaves,  possessed  of  foresight,  prud- 
ence, wisdom,  and  the  hardier  virtues,  have  met  the 
shock  of  disadvantage  under  which  the  race  was  left 
by  the  turbulence  of  years,  and  with  a  display  of 
manhood  which  has  challenged  the  admiration  of  all, 
have  vindicated  their  worth  by  the  stations  which 
they  have  made  for  themselves  and  in  honor  of  their 
race. 

As  from  ignorance  they  have  attained  to  scholar- 
ship; from  penury  to  competence,  and  even  to  for- 
tune; from  a  vagabondism  where  slavery  left  them, 
when  they  were  released  from  its  bonds,  to  the  erec- 
tion of  good  homes  and  to  the  ownership  of  lands, 
and  from  the  gross  conditions  of  immorality  to 
those  of  respectability  and  honor,  these  leaders  have 
become  the  harbingers  of  hope  and  of  inspiration  to 
the  race,  and  have  set  forever  at  nought  the  opinions 
held  in  former  years  of  the  incapacity  of  the  Negro 
to  stand  alone. 

True,  the  croak  is  sometimes  heard  that  the  Negro 
has  made  no  such  progress  as  is  justified  by  the  priv- 
ileges which  he  has  so  abundantly  enjoyed.  But  it 
is  charitable  to  suppose  that  those  who  now  make 
such  charge  are  not  aware  of  the  amazing  strides 
which  have  been  made.  That  the  Negro  has  done  so 
much,  done  it  so  marvellously  well,  and  within  so 
short  a  period  of  time,  is  creditable  not  only  to  him, 
but  would  be  to  any  people  similarly  situated. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  two  and  a  half  cen- 
turies ago  the  ancestry  of  this  race  was  savages  in 


26  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  land  of  the  Dark  Continent,  and  that  forty-five 
years  ago  some  of  these  same  Negroes  and  their 
ancestors  were  slaves  on  the  plantations  of  the  South, 
it  is  astounding  that  they  were  able  to  enter  the  gate- 
way of  the  new  century  with  so  many  demonstra- 
tions of  genuine  progress.  To  claim,  as  is  some- 
times done,  that  no  people  of  inherent  worth  would 
have  submitted  so  willingly  to  the  galling  servitude 
of  more  than  two  hundred  years,  and  to  offer  that  in 
proof  of  their  inherent  weakness  and  worthlessness, 
is  sufficiently  answered  by  the  historic  fact  that  the 
Hebrew  race,  the  most  wonderful  people  of  all  time, 
was  in  servitude  for  four  hundred  years,  was  grossly 
ignorant  when  the  bondage  of  slavery  was  broken, 
was  embruted  by  slavery,  was  superstitious,  and 
at  the  end  of  forty  years  was  not  sufficiently  recov- 
ered from  the  dire  effects  of  servitude  to  be  entrusted 
to  entrance  into  the  land  of  promise. 

To  have  seen  the  surging  multitude  of  Hebrews, 
said  to  have  been  two  million  strong,  on  the  border 
of  the  Red  Sea,  when  the  Egyptian  host  thundered 
threatingly  in  the  rear,  would  have  inspired  but 
slight  hope  of  the  future  prominence  of  the  race; 
but  within  that  ignorant  mass  lay  the  germ  of  the 
future  church,  the  blessings  of  our  Christianity,  and 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God.  They,  too,  produced 
but  few  leaders  in  the  outset,  but  as  a  people  they 
have  spread  the  influence  of  their  power  around  the 
habitable  globe.  Of  course,  the  conditions  attending 
the  two  races  were  vastly  different.  The  Negro  has 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  27 

within  easy  reach  the  facilities  of  advancement.  But 
the  comparative  advantages  are  not  the  question  in- 
volved, but  that  of  the  possibility  of  the  Negro  to 
make  progress.  If  there  was  nothing  in  the  Negro 
to  respond,  no  inherent  quality,  no  germ  of  prophecy, 
he  could  never  have  risen  at  all,  and  certainly  not  to 
the  point  to  which  he  has  surprisingly  attained,  when 
it  is  remembered  that  he  has  been  compelled  to  con- 
test every  inch  of  the  way  against  the  gravest  of 
disadvantages.  Effort  is  making  the  Negro,  as  it 
invariably  makes  civilization.  The  Indian  enjoyed 
the  same  advantage,  but  he  decayed  under  the  influ- 
ence of  civilized  life. 

Let  it  be  remembered  also  that  when  one  speaks 
of  the  advancement  made,  or  not  made,  by  the 
Negro,  his  standard  of  judgment  is  that  of  a  race 
which  for  full  eight  hundred  years,  or  more,  has 
been  pushing  along  the  highway  of  progress.  If  a 
comparison  be  instituted,  let  it  be  between  the 
African  in  Africa  and  the  African  in  America,  and 
not  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  with  his  growing  cul- 
ture of  many  centuries,  and  a  race  the  birth-hour 
of  whose  freedom  dates  back  to  a  period  of  less  than 
fifty  years.  A  race  no  more  than  an  individual  can 
change  its  habits  and  customs  overnight. 

These  general  statements  bring  the  situation  some- 
what before  us,  and  prepare  us  for  a  more  specific 
presentation  of  that  which  is  to  follow, 


CHAPTER  II. 

GENESIS  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

By  the  stereotyped  expression,  "The  Negro  Prob- 
lem," is  commonly  understood  that  condition  which 
has  arisen  in  the  states  of  the  South  since  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  in  consequence  of  the  freedom 
of  the  Southern  slave.  That  the  "problem"  came 
to  its  culmination  at  that  time  is  true,  but  that  it 
is  a  condition  confined  altogether  to  the  brief  period 
in  which  it  reached  its  consummation,  is  not  true. 
The  roots  of  the  trouble  run  back  under  two  and  a 
half  centuries,  and  its  incipiency  was  when  the  first 
slave  ship  set  sail  from  the  coasts  of  Africa.  Its  be- 
ginning was  occasioned  by  the  dealer  in  human  souls 
as  a  commodity  of  traffic,  and  one  in  which  the 
Negro  himself  had  no  part,  save  in  an  humble  and 
passive  way  as  an  object  of  commerce.  Born  of  the 
spirit  of  cupidity,  it  was  nursed  in  the  interest  of 
gain,  and  when  the  Negro  ceased  to  be  a  chattel  it 
assumed  the  proportions  for  which  it  was  logically 
destined  when  the  first  purchase  of  slaves  was  made 
in  Africa. 

Slavery  under  certain  conditions  was  not  new 
when  the  importation  of  Africans  to  America  be- 
gan. For  ages  a  custom  had  prevailed  among  bar- 
barous peoples  to  reduce  to  slavery  prisoners  cap- 

28 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  29 

tured  in  war,  but  this  was  only  one  of  the  methods 
by  which  people  were  enslaved,  for  they  were  bought 
and  sold  in  divers  ways  from  ancient  times  down  to 
the  nineteenth  century.  For  centuries  together  Af- 
rica had  been  a  common  slave  market  for  different 
nations.  Prior  to  the  discovery  of  America,  the 
Arabs  had  been  the  most  active  in  the  purchase  of 
slaves  in  Africa.  While  the  African  was  bought  by 
themselves  sometimes  for  traffic,  the  general  use  of 
the  slave  was  that  of  service  or  labor  to  the  Arab 
master.  The  discovery  of  the  New  World  and  the 
subsequent  development  of  the  mines  and  planta- 
tions, which  required  severe  toil,  physical  endurance, 
and  unusual  hardship,  gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  the 
African  slave  trade.  By  reason  of  these  develop- 
ments on  a  new  continent,  the  value  of  the  raw  slave 
was  advanced,  and  the  importation  of  Africans 
quickened.  If  the  discovery  of  America  was  an 
immense  blessing  it  was  not  unattended  by  as  dire 
a  curse  as  ever  afflicted  humanity.  It  does  not  come 
within  the  province  of  this  work  to  enter  at  length 
on  a  history  of  the  slave  trade,  and  only  to  allude  to 
it  thus  briefly  because  of  its  connection  with  the 
matter  now  under  consideration. 

The  Negro  is  in  America,  then,  not  because  of 
any  volition  of  his  own,  but  by  reason  of  compul- 
sion. Either  by  kidnapping  or  by  purchase  from 
petty  savage  chiefs  in  Africa,  he  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  American  slave  dealer,  and  was  brought 
hither  and  sold  into  servitude. 


3o  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

The  lack  of  adaptation  of  the  Negro  slave  to  New 
England,  on  account  alike  of  climatic  conditions  and 
the  infertility  of  the  soil,  and  the  success  of  slave 
labor  in  Virginia  from  the  founding  of  Jamestown 
onward,  led  to  his  gradual  drift  to  the  warmer  states 
and  the  rich  agricultural  lands  of  the  South.  The 
rapid  development  of  the  South  following  the  close 
of  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  increased  peopling  of 
the  regions  westward,  created  a  growing  demand 
for  slaves  with  physical  strength  and  power  of  en- 
durance alike  beneath  the  hot  suns  of  the  South 
and  in  regions  infected  by  malaria,  for  which  the 
white  man  was  not  prepared.  The  Negro,  inured 
to  conditions  like  these  in  his  own  tropical  Africa, 
was  therefore  in  great  demand  for  this  arduous 
service. 

While  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  found 
the  Negroes  massed,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  states 
of  the  South,  from  Maryland  to  Texas  and  Arkan- 
sas and  Missouri,  they  had  traveled  all  the  way 
across  the  continent  from  New  England.  If  South- 
ern planters  bought  the  slaves,  Northern  traders,  in 
the  earlier  years,  sold  and  supplied  them.  "If 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  was  one  of  the  chief 
ports  of  destination  for  slave-trading  vessels,  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  was  one  of  the  chief  ports  from 
whence  these  vessels  sailed."* 

*Extract  from  an  address  of  Hon.  W.  H.  Fleming  be- 
fore the  Alumni  Society  of  the  University  of  Georgia, 
June  19,  1906. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  31 

For  generations,  then,  Southerners  came  naturally 
to  regard  the  slave  as  a  legitimate  commodity  in 
trade,  and  as  a  serf  designated  for  just  the  labor 
which  was  imposed  on  him.     His  servitude  was 
easy,  his  temper  docile  and  tractable,  and  his  labor 
was  remunerative,  especially  on  the  fields  of  the 
further  South.     The  slave  himself,  after  the  first 
generation  had  passed,  ignorant  of  his  origin,  and 
knowing  nothing  of  his  ancestry,  was  disposed  to 
regard  his  servitude  as  his  natural  destiny.     His 
profit  lay  largely  in  his  ignorance  of  the  wherefore 
of  his  servitude,  and  most  sedulously  was  he  pre- 
served in  that  ignorance  by  the  white  master.     His 
prolificness  was  encouraged  by  every  possible  means, 
just  as  was  that  of  the  grazing  herds  of  the  owner, 
because  his  increase    meant    an    enhancement    of 
wealth.     Laws  were  enacted  in  the  slave  states  to 
hedge  him  about  with  ignorance,  that  he  might  not 
learn  his  real  condition,  and  the  virtue  of  chastity 
was  a  thing  rarely  known  among  Negroes.     The 
birth  of  a  slave  child  was  hailed  on  the  plantation  as 
an  additional  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  it  was  a 
matter  of  slight  importance  how  the    issue    came. 
From  his  earliest  years,  the  Negro  was  trained  into 
submission,  and  thence  disciplined  into  perfect  obe- 
dience.    His  rearing  was  amidst  the  exactions  of 
hardship,  and  naturally  and  conditionally  he  was 
seasoned  for  hard  and  exacting  service.    There  was 
not  lacking  the  inculcation  of  certain  destructive 


32  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

vices  by  the  examples  of  white  men,  whom  the  slave 
reverenced  and  who  were  to  the  serf  the  highest 
ideals  of  integrity.  In  some  instances,  rewards  for 
productiveness  in  child-bearing  were  offered  on 
Southern  plantations,  and  but  little  was  presented 
as  an  encouragement  to  the  virtue  of  chastity. 
For  centuries  the  utmost  laxity  as  to  morals  pre- 
vailed on  Southern  plantations.  Craven  fear  of 
punishment  was  the  prime  motive  to  honesty  and 
truthfulness.  If  one  was  a  successful  thief  he  felt 
that  he  was  but  getting  a  portion  of  his  due,  as  he 
was  the  creator  of  the  wealth  of  the  master. 

In  this  deplorable  condition,  lasting  through  gen- 
erations of  the  enslaved  race,  there  were  forecast 
the  horrors  which  were  to  come  in  the  years  of  the 
future.  In  the  processes,  step  by  step,  beginning 
with  the  capture  of  the  Negro  savage  on  his  native 
shores,  and  running  through  his  experiences  and 
those  of  his  descendants,  was  ripening  the  Negro 
problem  of  the  present. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  the  moral  sentiment 
of  the  world  against  slavery  was  rising  and  bearing 
with  greater  force  against  the  system  in  the  South. 
The  revolution  was  irresistible,  and  slavery  was 
doomed.  Now  and  then,  under  the  stress  of  the  dis- 
cussion which  went  on  for  years,  a  Southern  master 
would  reach  the  conviction  that  human  slavery  was 
wrong  in  principle,  and  would  voluntarily  manumit 
his  slaves. 

Quite  naturally  the  South  was  the  last  portion  of 


33 

the  country  to  which  general  attention  was  called 
with  respect  to  slave  liberation,  because  the  Negroes 
were  mainly  massed  on  the  rich  lands  of  that  region. 
Just  as  naturally  the  Southern  owner  was  reluctant 
to  relinquish  his  hold  on  his  slaves  because  they  were 
the  most  valuable  of  his  possessions, — the  basis  of 
his  industrial  system,  and  of  his  commerce.  Trained 
to  regard  his  slaves  as  his  rightful  property,  he  was 
ready  to  defend  his  rights  by  biblical  logic,  by  con- 
stitutional provision,  and  if  need  be,  by  the  use  of 
the  bullet  and  the  sword.  His  slaves  were  his  by 
purchase  or  by  inheritance,  and  from  this  conception 
the  logic  was  easy  to  a  position  of  defense  of  African 
servitude,  based  on  the  adaptation  of  the  Negro  as 
a  laborer  to  the  fields  of  the  South.  The  torrid 
sun,  the  heavy  and  stubborn  but  fertile  soils,  so  ill 
adapted  to  the  labor  of  the  tenderer  white,  the  mus- 
cularity of  the  slave,  his  servile  obedience,  his  cheer- 
fulness in  toil,  his  uncomplaining  mood  in  the  en- 
joyment of  the  scant  comfort  afforded,  his  devotion 
and  loyalty  to  his  master,  and  most  of  all,  the  benefi- 
cence of  the  system  of  slavery  in  comparison  with 
the  dismal  conditions  of  mentality  and  utter  absence 
of  civilization  of  his  fatherland — what  more  was 
needed  to  justify  the  perpetuation  of  African 
slavery  ? 

But  the  principle  of  human  freedom  obtaining 
elsewhere  over  the  world,  found  its  way  with  in- 
creasing pressure  into  the  states  of  the  South.  The 
world  was  moving  and  leaving  in  its  wake  the  relics 


i\    : 


34  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

of  barbarism  of  which  slavery  was  one.     Slavery 
was  doomed. 

Silently  the  forces  of  the  race  problem  were  con- 
verging toward  a  given  point.  While  the  Southern 
planter  was  complacently  congratulating  himself 
that  he  was  being  enriched  by  the  multiplied  prog- 
eny of  his  slaves,  he  was  only  increasing  the  com- 
plicated elements  of  the  race  question  which  was 
to  loom  into  frowning  prominence  in  the  years  of 
the  future.  His  supposed  blessing  was,  after  all, 
not  unalloyed.  All  supposed  advantages  of  slavery 
were  but  hidden  obstructions  of  the  race  question 
which  had  been  on  the  march  since -first  the  wrong 
began  by  enforced  slavery  on  the  African  coast. 
The  problem  was  already  growing  toward  maturity 
and  consummation.  In  vain  was  the  ethics  of  hu- 
man liberty  and  of  reciprocity  openly  repudiated  in 
the  schools  and  colleges  of  the  South.  When  that 
portion  of  moral  instruction  was  reached  in  the 
schools,  counter  lectures  were  delivered  in  defense 
of  slavery  as  a  biblical  system,  so  blinded  were  the 
cultured  people  of  the  South  by  their  valuable  slave 
possessions  and  to  its  ultimate  consequences.  Given 
certain  premises  of  choice,  the  argument  will  be 
forced  to  certain  conclusions  of  satisfaction,  even 
though  it  be  wrong.  Only  Right  lives  and  moves 
on  a  straight  line  into  the  light,  while  Wrong  is 
blindfolded  till  retribution  lifts  the  alarm,  and  the 
bandage  is  taken  from  the  eyes.  The  brothers  of 
Joseph  did  not  realize  so  fully  the  wrong  done,  till 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  35 

it  was  disclosed  in  the  perplexity  encountered  long 
years  afterward  in  Egypt.  "We  are  verily  guilty 
concerning  our  brother,  in  that  we  saw  the  anguish 
of  his  soul,  when  he  besought  us,  and  we  would  not 
hear;  therefore  is  this  distress  come  upon  us." 

Never  were  a  people  sincerer,  never  a  cause  more 
manfully  struggled  for,  than  the  cause  of  African 
serviture  by  strong  and  able  men  of  the  South.  Every 
scrap  of  defense  in  behalf  of  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  adduced.  To  mock  their  efforts  even  at  this 
late  day  were  unbecoming,  but  it  seems  strange  that 
with  an  inception  such  as  domestic  servitude  had, 
in  human  piracy  and  in  corrupt  dicker,  there  should 
not  have  been  an  occasional  misgiving  of  the  right- 
eousness of  the  cause  so  ardently  defended.  The 
wrong  done  at  the  fountain  source  could  not  clear 
the  stream  of  its  sediment  however  brilliant  the  in- 
jected rhetoric,  however  keen  the  incisive  logic.  A 
wrong  begun  and  prosecuted  works  itself  out  to  its 
conclusion,  however  sinuous  its  course,  and  how- 
ever it  may  be  sought  to  be  averted. 

The  race  problem,  considering  it  in  its  full  scope 
as  embracing  the  period  of  the  regime  of  slavery, 
was  not  unattended  by  certain  advantages,  some  of 
which  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  slave  himself,  but  that 
does  not  atone  for  the  original  wrong  done.  To 
kidnap,  decoy,  purchase,  or  otherwise  get  posses- 
sion of  the  African  on  his  own  distant  shores  was 
either  right  or  wrong.  If  right,  it  should  have  been 
done,  and  all  the  defense  of  slavery  was  correct. 


3<5          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

But  to  insist  on  its  Tightness  would  be  subversive 
of  the  code  of  morals.  If  wrong,  then  no  amount 
of  kindness  done  the  slave,  no  reasoning  however 
able,  no  views  however  sincere,  can  displace  the 
wrong  done.  The  slave  dealer,  then,  as  the  prime 
origin  of  Negro  servitude,  was  also  the  primitive 
source  of  the  much-mooted  race  problem.  If  the 
Negro  had  been  left  in  Africa,  the  race  problem 
would  not  be.  Why  is  he  here?  How  came  he 
here?  These  questions  answered,  answers  also  the 
question  of  the  origin  of  the  race  problem. 

Had  the  Negro  been  a  foreign  immigrant  in  the 
sense  in  which  others  are  who  have  sought  our 
shores  from  preference;  had  he  come  as  have  come 
the  Irishman,  German,  Italian,  Japanese,  Chinese, 
and  all  the  rest,  and  had  he  under  conditions  like 
these  been  the  occasion  of  existing  complications, 
then  it  would  be  not  only  the  Negro  problem,  but 
the  problem  of  the  Negro.  But  he  was  forcibly 
seized,  or  otherwise  gotten  forcible  possession  of, 
and  by  that  same  force  brought  to  America,  inject- 
ed into  American  life  with  all  the  possible  complica- 
tions attaching  to  his  presence — not  complications 
of  his  own  making,  but  those  of  the  whites,  who 
have  manipulated,  swayed,  directed,  and  controlled 
his  course  every  step  of  the  way,  from  the  landing 
of  the  slave  ships  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago  to  the  present.  By  a  partnership  of  the 
self-seeking  purchaser  and  owner  of  the  slave,  and 
of  all  others  connected  with  hrm,  and  the  direction 


37 

of  affairs  of  a  mysterious  Providence,  the  so-called 
race  problem  has  come  to  its  logical  consummation. 

No  matter  how  it  has  been  brought  about,  the 
responsibility  of  such  result  rests  not  on  the  Negro, 
but  on  the  white  man.  The  Negro  has  been  only  a 
passive  agent,  a  subjective  instrument,  and  in  noth- 
ing that  has  occurred  in  his  history  has  he  been  the 
prime  mover,  and  is  therefore  not  responsible.  He 
did  not  leave  Africa  by  volition,  he  did  not  volun- 
tarily assume  the  function  of  servitude,  he  did  not 
emancipate  or  enfranchise  himself,  he  did  not  draft 
the  amendments  to  the  national  constitution  adopt- 
ed in  his  behalf — he  did  none  of  these  things,  but 
they  were  the  work  of  the  whites.  The  result  is 
therefore  not  chargeable  to  the  Negro,  nor  is  the 
problem  his.  In  order  to  find  the  source  of  the 
trouble  which  we  popularly  call  the  Negro  problem, 
we  must  follow  up  the  stream  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  and  seek  its  source  in  the  land  of  Ham. 
Sheer  fairness  demands  that  we  visit  not  on  the 
Negro,  because  he  is  a  Negro,  the  consequences  of 
a  train  of  events,  nor  of  their  resultant,  when  he 
has  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  either  in  setting 
them  in  motion  or  in  directing  them.  As  well  might 
the  pilot  burn  his  boat  for  striking  a  snag  in  the 
stream  when  he  himself  was  in  the  pilot  house. 

This  seems  a  primary  principle  necessary  of  rec- 
ognition before  we  are  prepared  to  take  the  first 
step  toward  the  solution  of  the  race  question.  It  is 
historic  as  a  fact,  and  just  as  a  moral  principle.  Be- 


38  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

cause  of  the  benefits  derived  as  a  result  of  Negro 
labor  for  more  than  two  and  a  half  centuries,  not  by 
a  few  only,  not  only  by  the  owners  of  slaves,  but 
by  all  alike,  of  all  sections  of  the  country,  the  white 
race  is  committed  as  a  whole  and  morally,  to  af- 
ford proper  relief  to  the  present  situation,  in  a  way 
reputable  to  the  white  man  and  equitable  to  the 
black. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   HIGHER  LAW. 

At  this  juncture  of  the  discussion  it  is  not  inap- 
propriate, in  the  light  of  the  facts  involved  in  the 
great  race  question,  to  call  attention  to  the  sugges- 
tions of  providence  concerning  the  outcome  of  the 
history  of  the  African-American,  for  as  a  Christian 
nation,  dealing  with  a  problem  of  anomalous  char- 
acter and  of  vast  proportions,  and  one,  too,  which 
vitally  concerns  our  entire  American  life,  we  cannot 
well  leave  this  phase  of  the  question  out  of  account. 

Brought  to  America,  as  the  Negro  was,  by  coer- 
cion, and  reduced  to  slavery  for  a  long  period  of 
time,  and  denied  most  of  the  ordinary  rights  of  hu- 
manity, with  no  will,  judgment,  or  conscience,  save 
that  derived  from  a  dominating  power,  the  sole 
aim  of  which  was  financial  profit — a  race  which  in 
the  evolution  of  Providence  finally  emerged  into 
freedom  with  all  that  that  nominally  means  in  a  de- 
mocracy, and  yet  the  victim  of  much  injustice,  is 
there  nothing  in  all  this  to  appeal  to  the  American 
conscience?  That  there  is  much  in  the  varying 
phases  of  Negro  history  in  America  to  suggest  the 
direct  agency  of  a  guiding  Providence  seems  un- 
questionable. 

39 


40  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Impelled  by  a  lust  for  profit,  and  regardless  of 
all  else  in  the  enforced  subordination  of  millions  of 
an  unoffending  race,  the  stronger  race  now  finds 
itself  inextricably  entangled  in  a  network  of  con- 
ditions from  which  there  is,  at  present,  no  visible 
means  of  escape.  Meanwhile  the  released  race  with 
dramatic  pathos  and  with  uncherished  passion  of 
unkindness  for  all  past  wrong — the  shuttle  in  the 
loom  of  contention  between  two  mighty  sections  of 
the  white  strength,  struggles  on  uncontrolled  by  the 
thoughts  of  the  past,  and  unbaffled  by  the  disad- 
vantages of  the  present,  to  gain  a  foothold  of  hope- 
fulness. In  this  hubbub  of  confusion  and  conten- 
tion, the  Negro  produces  no  discord  by  undue  claim, 
but  simply  asks  the  recognition  which  is  due  a  man 
joining  in  the  rough  encounters  of  the  world,  and 
for  the  chance  of  a  livelihood  along  with  other  men. 
Considering  all  this,  is  there  not  a  suggestion  of 
equity  to  the  American  mind? 

As  a  race,  the  Negro  is  unable  to  take  the  initia- 
tive in  the  appeal  of  his  cause  to  the  stronger  race. 
Because  of  the  strained  relations  between  the  two 
races,  white  and  black,  and  because  of  the  subordi- 
nate position  which  he  is  forced  to  occupy,  any  ini- 
tiative on  his  part  would  be  regarded  as  imperti- 
nent, and  would  therefore  go  unheeded.  He  must 
needs,  therefore,  accept  whatever  is  granted,  and 
await  the  favorable  action  of  his  white  neighbor. 
In  all  the  transactions  concerning  himself  he  has 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  41 

had  no  part  nor  lot,  and  is  oblivious  to  the  past, 
if  only  in  the  future  he  may  be  given  a  chance. 

The  remarkable  leadership  developed  by  the  race, 
despite  the  accumulated  disadvantages  encountered, 
asks  for  its  people  nothing  more  than  an  opportun- 
ity to  demonstrate  their  merit.  It  asks  not  to  be 
taken  as  a  ward  or  regarded  as  a  fondling,  nor  yet 
as  a  mendicant  does  it  seek  pity,  but  only  that  it 
may  be  able  to  stand  full  on  its  feet  in  the  attitude 
of  manliness.  This  is  the  reasonable  request  of  the 
leaders  of  the  race,  the  achievements  of  whom  merit 
attention  and  excite  confidence.  In  the  face  of  the 
facts  already  briefly  stated,  in  what  condition  do  we 
now  find  this  lately  enslaved  race?  In  the  section 
which  it  served  so  long  under  the  conditions  already 
named  and  fully  known,  the  Negro  is  hedged  about 
by  restrictions  which  often  prevail  in  the  denial  of 
the  simplest  justice  in  the  courts,  his  development  is 
opposed  by  many,  his  rights  to  labor  is  in  some  in- 
stances denied,  opposition  is  raised  to  his  presence 
in  some  quarters,  in  most  questions  of  popular  con- 
tention between  him  and  the  stronger  race  the  result 
is  usually  unfavorable  to  him,  so  that  he  is  com- 
pelled often  to  scramble  for  a  mere  footing  in  the 
ordinary  jobs  of  life. 

In  the  criminal  courts  prejudice  and  passion  rath- 
er than  justice  are  often  accorded  him,  and  under 
the  guise  of  a  false  chivalry  and  a  monstrous  per- 
version of  law  he  is  frequently  taken  and  hanged 


42  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

without  the  opportunity  of  a  syllable  of  defense. 
All  that  is  wrong  concerning  him  is  paraded  before 
the  world  in  such  a  way  as  to  involve  the  whole  race, 
irrespective  of  merit  or  demerit,  while  his  worthier 
acts  go  unnoticed — the  heroic  efforts  of  thousands 
of  them  to  render  aid  and  benevolent  assistance  to 
yet  other  thousands  on  the  inferior  planes  of  life; 
the  daily  industry  of  millions  in  domestic  service, 
on  the  fields,  in  the  varied  vocations  of  business,  in 
the  schools,  churches,  and  on  the  distant  fields  of 
missionary  endeavor ;  the  Negro's  ambition  shown  in 
the  purchase  of  lands  from  earnings  eked  from  the 
most  exacting  economy,  in  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  libraries,  in  the  founding  of  pub- 
lishing houses,  and  in  the  establishment  of  good 
homes — who  knows  of  these  things? 

This  is  a  plain,  general  statement  of  fact  concern- 
ing the  Negro  in  the  states  of  the  South,  relieved,  it 
is  cheerfully  admitted,  by  certain  exceptions  of  in- 
dividual consideration  in  his  behalf,  but  the  facts, 
as  recorded,  remain.  Yet  in  the  face  of  all  these 
conditions,  conditions  produced  by  the  stronger  and 
dominating  race,  we  speak  of  the  Negro  as  an  "un- 
desirable citizen,"  a  menace,  a  peril,  and  as  the 
occasion  of  an  "impending  crisis."  Instead  of  con- 
sideration we  often  employ  exasperation,  and  for 
patience,  more  frequently  than  otherwise,  substi- 
tute passion.  If,  then,  the  condition  today  be  one  of 
strained  relations  and  of  unfortunate  misunder- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  43 

standings  between  the  two  races,  is  the  Negro 
wholly  responsible? 

The  facts  above  recorded  relate  to  conditions  in 
the  South,  and  yet  despite  these,  the  Negro  finds 
ampler  scope  and  bigger  opportunity  here  than  he 
does  elsewhere.  Not  that  this  last  statement  in  the 
least  impairs  the  integrity  of  those  already  made, 
but  serves  the  rather  to  show  the  grave  disadvan- 
tages of  the  Negro  in  a  country  for  which  he  has 
done  so  much,  and  for  which  he  was  almost  wholly 
unrequited. 

Without  sectional  or  partisan  bias,  and  prompted 
alone  by  the  desire  to  get  before  us  facts,  how  about 
the  treatment  of  the  Negro  at  the  North?  On  this 
subject  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler,  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, has  recently  spoken  with  authoritative  em- 
phasis, and  declares  that  racial  antipathy  is  as  deep 
toward  the  Negro  at  the  North  as  elsewhere.  It 
would  seem  from  his  statements  that  certain  bar- 
riers are  raised  in  the  way  of  the  Negro  in  the 
North,  as  certain  other  obstructions  are  thrown  in 
his  way  in  the  South.  In  the  North  the  Negro  is 
denied  membership  in  the  labor-unions,  and  then  in 
order  to  seal  hermetically  the  situation  against  him, 
an  employer  is  forbidden  to  engage  the  services  of 
non-union  labor.  In  other  words,  the  Negro  is  pre- 
cluded altogether.  Should  the  employer  engage  the 
services  of  Negroes,  the  members  of  the  labor 
unions,  rather  than  work  beside  the  colored  men, 


44  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

decline  to  labor  at  all.  Besides  these,  it  is  a  fact 
well  known,  that  even  in  some  of  the  menial  func- 
tions of  industry,  the  Negro  is  denied  employment, 
purely  on  account  of  color.  This  pertains  to  certain 
hotels,  restaurants,  barber  shops,  and  to  domestic 
service  as  hostlers,  butlers,  maids,  janitors,  sextons, 
and  other  similar  functions. 

In  the  North  the  Negro  can  ride  with  the  whites 
in  street  cars  and  on  railway  trains,  which  privilege 
is  denied  him  in  the  South;  he  can  occupy  a  place, 
along  with  the  whites,  in  the  schools,  churches,  and 
operas  in  the  North,  but  not  in  the  South — almost 
any  thing  which  may  involve  the  payment  of  money, 
he  can  have  North,  but  not  South.  In  the  South 
he  does  find  opportunity  to  make  a  dollar;  in  the 
North  he  is  given  opportunity  to  spend  it.  This 
is  only  putting  in  another  form  the  language  of 
Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  when  he  says,  "If  the 
Negro  would  spend  a  dollar  at  the  opera,  he  will 
find  the  fairest  opportunity  at  the  North;  if  he  would 
earn  the  dollar,  his  fairest  opportunity  is  at  the 
South.  The  opportunity  to  earn  his  dollar  fairly 
is  of  much  more  importance  to  the  Negro  just  now, 
than  the  opportunity  to  spend  it  at  the  opera." 

Again,  this  greatest  of  Negro  leaders  says,  "It  is 
at  the  South  that  the  black  man  finds  an  open  sesame 
in  labor,  industry  and  business  that  is  not  surpassed 
anywhere.  It  is  here  that  that  form  of  slavery 
which  prevents  a  man  from  selling  his  labor  to  whom 
he  pleases  on  account  of  his  color,  is  almost  un- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          45 

known.  We  have  had  slavery  in  the  South,  now 
dead,  that  forced  an  individual  to  labor  without  a 
salary,  but  none  that  compelled  a  man  in  idleness 
while  his  family  starved." 

Yet,  in  the  South,  as  has  already  been  shown,  and 
as  is  well  known,  there  are  certain  restrictions  im- 
posed, and  privileges  denied,  even  in  the  field  of  in- 
dustry sometimes,  because  of  color.  There  are  many 
simple  features  of  justice  denied  the  Negro,  which 
could  be  accorded  without  hurt  or  compromise,  and 
yet  which  are  withheld  because  of  a  dark  skin. 
Without  captiousness  this  is  written  respecting  the 
treatment  of  the  Negro  in  both  regions,  North  and 
South. 

Toward  what  does  all  this  tend?  Toward  the 
creation  of  a  condition  throughout  the  Union  of  an 
economic  disturbance  even  to  irritation — a  perpetual 
restlessness  that  necessarily  throws  conditions  out 
of  poise.  If  this  condition  shall  continue  to  prevail, 
that  which  we  now  account  a  problem,  will  become 
mere  child's  play  in  the  complications  which  the 
future  is  destined  to  bring.  It  boots  but  little  to 
create  conditions  such  as  have  been  described,  and 
then  lift  our  hands  in  holy  horror  and  say,  "How 
can  we  solve  the  problem?"  It  is  of  small  worth 
to  write  learned  essays  on  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions with  a  certain  tang  of  dismay,  when  the 
root  of  the  conditions  lies  untouched.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary to  become  frantic  or  extravagant  about  the 
Negro,  and  to  seek  to  enlarge  his  importance — that 


46  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

is  not  the  matter  at  issue — it  is  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple as  plain  in  the  code  of  ethics  as  the  sun  in 
the  heavens.  It  is  a  principle  that  strikes  at  the  basis 
of  a  nation  which  has  a  heterogenous  and  cosmo- 
politan population.  To  hedge,  deny,  repress  and  op- 
press, by  means  of  sheer  force  will  inevitably  pro- 
duce a  condition  through  which  justice  will  inevit- 
ably break  as  certainly  as  God  reigns.  The  slumber 
of  justice  is  not  its  death.  That  there  is  a  power 
overruling  and  directing  the  destiny  of  the  affairs 
of  the  world,  a  power  transcending  our  plans,  pur- 
poses and  schemes,  the  history  of  every  race  and 
nation  teaches. 

History  records  only  the  footprints  of  Providence, 
and  in  the  sudden  transitions  which  have  frequently 
taken  place,  there  are  seen  so  many  revolutions  of 
the  wheel  which  is  guided  by  an  unseen  Hand. 
Force  may  prevail  for  a  period,  arrogance  may  hold 
sway  for  a  season,  and  wrong  may  seem  triumph- 
ant; but  they  are  moving  under  a  directing  Hand, 
not  in  the  interest  of  a  race  or  a  people  merely,  but 
in  the  interest  of  principle  which  must  be  finally 
uppermost.  At  some  point  in  the  future,  though 
long  delayed  it  may  be,  in  order  to  accomplishment, 
that  purpose  will  be  revealed. 

The  iniquity  of  the  system  of  slavery  has  wrought 
and  still  works.  That  wrong  principle  abides  yet  in 
American  life.  Nothing  is  gained  by  an  effort  to 
resist  an  inexorable  law.  It  works  unseen,  works 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  47 

with  silent  force,  and  transmutes  the  plans,  the 
schemes  and  the  acts  of  men  into  agents  in  the  con- 
summation of  its  ultimate  result.  They  are  bewil- 
dering— the  examples  and  illustrations  of  history 
in  proof  of  this  statement.  A  course  of  wrong,  a 
policy  of  injustice  can  never  reach  the  result  of 
right. 

As  applied  to  the  present  discussion,  it  is  easy 
to  say  that  this  is  "negrophobia,"  and  to  denounce 
one  as  a  "negrophile,"  but  that  answers  nothing. 
When  a  given  policy  or  course  can  portend  nothing 
less  than  peril  alike  to  justice  and  to  freedom,  it 
were  criminal  to  be  silent.  There  is  nothing  novel 
or  unusual  in  the  enunciation  of  certain  homely  eth- 
ical principles.  They  are  as  old  as  the  race,  and  are 
written  on  every  page  of  human  history.  Nor 
have  such  enunciations  been  without  utterance  from 
Southern  sources  even  within  recent  years.  In  1903, 
said  the  Montgomery  (Ala.)  Advertiser:  "The 
white  race  has  a  duty  which  is  imperative.  It  is  a 
duty  which  is  demanded  by  justice,  by  humanity, 
and  by  self  interest.  Ours  is  and  will  ever  be  the 
governing  race.  It  will  elect  the  lawmakers,  make 
the  laws,  and  enforce  them.  That  being  so,  that 
principle  of  eternal  justice  which  bids  the  strong 
protect  the  weak,  makes  it  our  duty  to  protect  the 
Negro  in  all  his  legal,  industrial  and  social  rights. 
We  should  see  that  he  has  equal  and  exact  justice 
in  the  courts,  that  the  laws  bear  alike  on  the  black 


48  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  the  white,  that  he  be  paid  for  his  labor  just  as 
the  white  man  is  paid,  and  that  no  advantage  be 

taken  of  his  ignorance  and  credulity 

"And  the  task  is  a  simple  and  easy  one.  The 
courts  and  juries  should  know  no  difference  between 
whites  and  blacks,  when  a  question  of  right  and 
justice  is  up  for  settlement.  The  man  who  employs 
a  Negro  to  work  for  him  should  deal  as  fairly  with 
him  as  he  would  deal  by  a  white  man.  The  life  of 
a  Negro  who  has  done  no  wrong  should  be  as  sacred 
as  the  life  of  a  white  man.  He  is  in  our  power, 
politically  and  otherwise,  and  justice,  humanity,  and 
good  policy  unite  in  demanding  for  him  an  equal 
and  exact  justice.  Keep  the  Negroes  among  us,  give 
them  the  full  protection  of  the  laws,  and  let  them 
have  justice  in  all  things.  That  is  the  solution  of 
the  race  problem."* 

"Careless    seems    the    great    Avenger;    history's    pages    but 

record 
One  death  grapple  in  the  darkness,  'twixt  old  systems  and 

the  World ; 
Truth    forever    on    the    scaffold,    Wrong    forever    on    the 

throne — 
Yet    the    scaffold    sways    the    future,    and,    behind    the    dim 

unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  his 


own. 


Nor  is  this  sentiment  exceptional  in  the  states  of 
the  South.  There  is  much  robust  sentiment  of  the 
same  character  throughout  the  better  element  of 
Southern  people.  Still,  conditions  heretofore  de- 
scribed, prevail.  It  may  be  idle  for  the  time  to 

*Quoted    from    a    footnote    in    Murphy's    "The    Present 
South,"  pp.  182-3. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  49 

protest  against  them,  but  they  as  certainly  bear  with- 
in themselves  the  germs  of  retributive  justice  as  that 
the  stars  shine. 

There  is  a  higher  law  than  that  of  human  will, 
whether  it  be  expressed  in  the  force  of  practical 
action,  or  on  the  statute  books  of  the  commonwealth. 
This  higher  law  has  ultimately  prevailed  in  the 
moral  government  of  the  world  in  the  past,  and  will 
continue  to  do  so  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO  AS  HE  IS. 

To  have  the  Negro  before  us  as  fully  as  possible, 
not  in  an  abstract  way,  but  concretely,  and  to  be 
able  to  see  him  and  know  him,  as  he  is,  will  prove  of 
great  value  as  we  shall  consider  him  in  the  subse- 
quent chapters  of  this  work.  That  there  is  preva- 
lent much  misunderstanding  and  the  absence  of  accu- 
rate information  respecting  the  Negro,  will  be  read- 
ily admitted.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that  there 
is  much  prejudice  in  the  public  mind  of  the  white 
race  concerning  the  Negro,  so  that  in  some  instances 
the  mere  mention  of  the  subject  is  sufficient  to 
awaken  prejudice,  which  is  an  invariable  barrier  to 
all  right  thinking,  and,  of  course,  to  any  satisfactory 
conclusion.  By  divesting  our  minds  of  prejudice 
or  of  any  notions  which  have  hitherto  controlled  us 
in  our  estimate  of  the  Negro,  and  by  a  faithful 
study  of  him,  as  he  actually  exists  in  the  states  of 
the  South,  we  shall  no  doubt  find  it  a  matter  of 
profit  alike  to  ourselves  and  to  the  Negro  race.  Of 
his  natural  disposition,  his  temper,  and  his  dominant 
characteristics  we  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  in 
these  pages  to  speak.  What  now  concerns  us  is  the 
classification  of  the  Negroes  of  the  South. 

SO 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  51 

Naturally  there  were  diversities  and  differences 
which  were  recognized  among  the  Negroes  even 
while  they  were  slaves  on  the  plantations  of  the 
South.  There  were  subordinate  leaders  developed, 
so  far  as  the  system  of  slavery  allowed  development, 
and  developed  to  a  point  where  the  spirit  of  leader- 
ship was  inexorably  checked,  but  leadership  never- 
theless there  was,  which  differentiated  the  inferior 
from  the  superior.  To  such  leaders  on  the  planta- 
tions was  accorded  certain  discretion  in  the  direc- 
tion of  affairs  in  a  subordinate  way,  and  such  lead- 
ers were  usually  called  "drivers."  The  limitation 
of  authority  with  which  they  were  entrusted  differed 
widely  on  different  plantations.  The  duty  of  the 
"driver"  was  to  superintend  or  direct  the  perform- 
ance of  a  certain  portion  of  work  assigned  to  him 
and  his  "gang"  apart  from  others,  for  the  proper  ex- 
ecution of  which  he  was  responsible,  of  all  of  which 
minor  distinction  the  slave  was  duly  proud.  There 
was  an  instance  of  which  the  present  writer  knew  in 
the  "Black  Belt"  of  Alabama,  where  a  slave  of  es- 
tablished reputation,  having  grown  old,  was  made 
by  his  master  a  sort  of  arbiter  in  the  adjudication  of 
differences  between  slaves,  and  even  of  those  be- 
tween^.,the  slaves  and  the  white  overseer,  or  super- 
intendent, during  the  absence  of  the  owner.  This 
old  man  was  exempt  from  all  labor  and  was  charged 
alone  with  the  function  already  named.  Thus  even 
in  slavery  there  was  not  unrecognized  that  superior- 
ity among  Negroes  which  found  expression  in  the 


52  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

general  leadership  of  that  race  when  the  Negro 
entered  on  his  career  in  the  new  orbit  of  freedom. 
In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  the  less  surprising  that 
we  find  the  widely  differing  classes  in  the  race  to- 
day. In  certain  particulars,  the  lines  of  separation 
are  very  distinct.  Any  failure  to  recognize  this  dis- 
tinction by  the  exercise  of  judgment  concerning  the 
entire  race  based  on  the  crimes  of  the  few,  is  exceed- 
ingly unjust,  and  acts  as  a  serious  barrier  to  the 
progress  of  the  Negro  race,  and  indirectly  levels  a 
blow  at  the  welfare  of  all  the  people,  for  to  affect 
one  portion  is  to  affect  all.  As  Edmund  Burke  long 
ago  expressed  it,  we  cannot  indict  a  whole  people, 
neither  can  we  hold  a  race  responsible  for  the  deeds 
of  the  few.  It  is  most  unfortunate,  certainly  at  this 
particular  juncture,  that  the  Negro  is  the  only  race 
that  is  so  judged.  If  a  crime  be  committed  by  any 
other  than  a  Negro,  it  is  the  individual  that  is  recog- 
nized; if  committed  by  a  Negro,  the  entire  race  is 
implicated.  This  has  been  the  occasion  of  much 
unnecessary  friction,  of  much  ill-advised  judgment. 
Not  till  the  lines  of  cleavage  are  justly  drawn  in  the 
distinction  between  the  different  classes  of  Negroes 
will  there  come  a  proper  accord  of  desert  to  those 
whose  every  energy  is  being  bent  toward  the  "accom- 
plishment of  the  most  for  their  people  and  for  the 
good  of  the  American  people  at  large.  Far  more 
than  is  commonly  known  are  the  Negroes  of  the 
higher  types  doing  what  they  can  for  the  elevation 
of  those  who  move  on  the  lower  levels.  With  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  53 

proper  accord  of  merit  there  will  result  a  corre- 
sponding progress  in  the  solution  of  the  race  ques- 
tion in  the  states  of  the  South. 

The  Negro  race  of  the  South  may  be  said  to  be 
divided  into  three  classes — the  intelligent  leaders, 
the  large  middle  or  laboring  class,  and  the  criminal 
class.  The  highest  class  is  not  so  large  as  that  of 
the  middle  class,  and  yet  it  is  larger  than  that  of  the 
lowest  or  criminal  class.  •  That  highest  class  is  con- 
stantly increasing  in  numbers,  while  there  is  a  per- 
ceptible decrease  in  the  lowest  class.  While  acces- 
sions to  the  ranks  of  the  highest  class  come  from  the 
middle  class,  both  the  upper  and  middle  classes,  by  a 
combined  influence  for  good,  are  tending  to  relieve 
the  lowest  class.  Of  the  forces  daily  at  work  in 
this  direction,  the  public  is  commonly  unaware.  Any 
word  spoken  to  the  detriment  of  the  race,  any  un- 
warranted action  taken  by  the  stronger  race,  acts  as 
a  hindrance  and  handicap  to  a  people,  the  efforts  of 
whom  for  the  good  of  their  own  people  have  never 
been  anywhere  surpassed.  It  is  hoped  that  this  will 
be  demonstrated  in  the  subsequent  pages  of  this 
work. 

Emerging  from  the  great  mass  of  ignorance 
which  characterized  the  Negro  race  in  the  dawn  of 
emancipation  there  were  certain  leaders  among  the 
Negroes  who  came  to  be  recognized  among  their 
people  as  such,  a  number  small  at  first,  but  of  suffi- 
cient strength  to  gain  the  attention  of  the  race.  With 
wise  discrimination  and  quiet  judgment  these  lead- 


54  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ers  foresaw  the  necessity  first  of  becoming  exemplars 
to  their  people  at  a  time  when  irritation  was  fresh 
and  sensitive  at  the  South,  in  the  establishment  of  the 
maintenance  of  those  principles  without  which  the 
race  must  ever  remain  in  a  condition  more  or  less 
degraded.  Never  was  an  undertaking  more  diffi- 
cult, never  was  one  attended  by  more  serious  dis- 
advantage, and  it  may  be  said,  never  was  there  more 
genuine  pluck  exhibited  than  was  shown  by  these 
same  projectors  on  a  basis  on  which  their  lately  en- 
slaved people  might  be  able  to  come  to  a  position  of 
respectability  and  usefulness  in  the  American  re- 
public. 

These  leaders  had  themselves  been  slaves,  and 
they  knew  the  temper  of  the  great  white  race,  and 
with  the  spirit  of  adjustability  for  which  the  Negro 
is  remarkable,  and  without  which  he  would  have 
gone  as  has  gone  the  Indian,  they  entered  as  pioneers 
on  what  seemed  a  forlorn  hope.  Quietly  availing 
themselves  of  whatever  facilities  lay  within  their 
reach  for  equipping  themselves  for  usefulness,  they 
have  steadily  held  on  their  course,  blazing  the  way 
for  the  great  mass  to  follow.  As  they  have  pressed 
up  the  heights,  inch  by  inch,  they  have  been  a  source 
of  inspiration  to  the  millions  below.  Eager  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge,  none  ever  turned  to  more 
practical  account  the  slender  resources  within  reach, 
none  ever  made  more  crucial  sacrifice.  The  intrinsic 
value  of  this  class  of  men  to  the  country  at  large, 
even  though  they  are  Negroes,  has  never  been  fully 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  55 

appreciated  by  the  American  people.  They  were  the 
first  to  find  a  path  out  of  the  tangled  wilderness  pro- 
duced by  the  chaos  which  followed  the  period  of 
emancipation,  for  none  of  which  were  they  respon- 
sible. The  exploits  of  these  people  in  a  realm  of 
their  own  creation  have  done  more  to  relieve  the 
difficulties  attendant  on  the  race  question  than  is 
commonly  supposed.  These  leaders  have  never  been 
arrogant,  never  presumptuous,  never  turbulent  or 
self-assertive  against  the  white  race,  but  always  pa- 
tient, always  respectful,  and  their  influence  on  their 
own  race  has  been  potent  for  good  beyond  measure. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  a  Negro  leader  amounts 
to  more  and  accounts  for  more  among  his  own  peo- 
ple than  does  that  of  a  leader  among  any  other 
people.  That  these  initial  leaders  with  such  clear- 
ness of  discrimination  seized  on  this  fact  to  turn  it 
to  so  vast  advantage  reflects  on  them  immense 
credit.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  timely  for 
the  Negro  race,  nothing  for  the  good  of  the  country 
at  large,  than  that  there  arose  such  a  class  of  lead- 
ers, at  just  such  a  juncture  among  the  Negro  masses 
of  the  South. 

Without  a  leadership  like  this,  it  is  impossible  to 
say  what  the  results  would  have  been.  These  same 
leaders,  naturally  endowed  as  they  were,  had  they 
become  leaders  in  the  opposite  direction,  would  have 
been  the  occasion  of  horrible  consequences  through- 
out the  States  of  the  South.  That  they  moved  up- 
ward toward  a  higher  sphere  and  for  the  best  things 


56  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

attainable  is  a  matter  of  exceeding  great  credit  to 
themselves,  and  one  that  calls  for  the  plaudit  of 
every  unbiased  white  citizen  throughout  the  land. 
The  achievements  wrought  in  education,  in  profes- 
sional life,  in  commerce,  and  in  the  establishment  of 
the  idea  of  homelife  among  their  people,  are  in  them- 
selves considered,  a  vast  benefaction  to  the  country. 
And  when  we  consider  the  influence  wrought  on  the 
race  of  which  they  are  the  worthy  representatives, 
these  leaders  are  worthy  of  all  praise.  The  Negro 
race  is  not  unlike  all  others  in  the  invaluableness  and 
indispensableness  of  a  leadership.  Most  fortunate 
is  the  Negro  race  of  the  South  in  having  as  its  ini- 
tial leaders  men  of  so  quiet,  robust  and  sturdy  worth. 
They  have  set  the  pace  for  the  race,  and  have  set  it 
well.  In  this  service  these  Negro  leaders  have  done 
for  the  country  at  large  that  which  they  only  could 
do.  No  others  could  have  effected  so  much  for  the 
race  of  which  they  are  members,  no  other  course 
could  have  been  so  productive  of  quiet  good  to  the 
country.  Nor  is  this  all.  This  same  class  of  de- 
serving men  have  had  frequently  to  encounter  the 
sorest  trials  and  confront  the  gravest  difficulties. 
They  have  been  severely  tested,  and  much  of  the 
work  done  has  been  of  a  delicate  nature.  Them- 
selves reaching  a  high  plane,  they  serve  as  a  per- 
petual animation  to  those  who  are  striving  to  follow, 
and  every  year  there  have  been  substantial  reinforce- 
ments added  to  this  vanguard  of  Negro  progress. 
The  second  or  middle  class  is  the  yeomanry  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  57 

the  Negro  race.  Though  less  favored  than  their 
brethren  on  the  upper  level,  they  are  not  a  whit  less 
worthy.  They  are  the  laboring  class — the  men  and 
women  of  hard  and  horny  hands,  and  of  patient  per- 
severance. They  are  plain,  many  of  them  being  un- 
able to  read,  and  laborious.  In  point  of  merit  they 
range  from  the  point  of  approximation  to  the  high- 
est of  their  race,  to  that  of  contact  with  the  lowest. 
They  constitute  a  large  bulk  of  the  race.  In  its  ele- 
ments this  class  is  far  more  varied  than  either  of 
the  others.  In  their  efforts  to  improve  their  condi- 
tions, the  members  of  this  class  are  often  beguiled 
into  unwary  purchases  to  their  detriment.  In  a 
cabin  one  finds  sometimes  a  costly  piano  or  organ, 
purchased  on  the  installment  plan,  at  an  exaggerated 
figure.  Again,  their  humble  homes,  far  in  the  in- 
terior, are  often  ornamented  by  showy  lightning- 
rods,  as  these  unsuspecting  people  have  fallen  vic- 
tims to  loquacious  venders.  One  of  the  chief  diffi- 
culties with  this  class,  and  one  which  operates  to 
their  injury,  is  that  many  of  them  are  excellent 
spenders  of  their  hard-earned  means. 

Their  ambition  is  to  elevate  their  children,  for 
the  education  of  whom  they  will  toil  and  spend  to 
the  last  limit.  From  this  class  comes  the  seed-corn 
of  the  race.  From  out  this  mass  come  the  boys  and 
girls  of  brightness  who  in  some  distant  school 
achieve  scholarship  or  develop  business  power,  and 
this,  in  turn,  serves  as  a  stimulus  to  a  multitude  of 
others.  Steadily  this  class  of  industrious  blacks  is 


58  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

improving,  are  buying  small  tracts  of  land,  and  are 
learning  to  husband  with  more  care  their  limited  re- 
sources. The  most  serious  practical  drawback  of 
this  class  is  its  disposition  to  spend.  It  furnishes 
gullible  victims  to  oily-tongued  peddlers  and  shrewd 
clerks  in  rural  stores.  These  people  are  often  easily 
bewitched  by  the  showy  and  tawdry,  and  lack  that 
provident  spirit  of  "laying  up  for  a  rainy  day." 

But  they  are  the  backbone  of  the  industrial  sys- 
tem of  the  South.  Their  parents  never  toiled  harder 
as  slaves  than  do  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  on 
the  fields  of  the  South  today.  With  respect  to  their 
resources,  many  of  them  are  content  "to  make  ends 
meet"  at  the  close  of  the  year.  While  they  enrich 
others  by  their  toil,  many  remain  unchanged  in  their 
financial  condition  from  year  to  year. 

There  is,  however,  a  perceptible  change  for  the 
better  in  some  quarters  of  the  South,  due  largely  to 
two  causes,  one  of  which  is  the  influence  of  those 
who  occupy  a  racial  station  higher  up  in  life.  Now 
and  then  representatives  of  this  more  favored  class 
penetrate  these  masses,  as  genuine  missionaries,  and 
inculcate  principles  of  thrift  and  economy  by  means 
of  which  the  yeoman  class  is  vastly  aided.  Another 
agency  is  that  of  the  rural  free  delivery  which  brings 
these  people  into  touch  with  the  outside  world.  With 
increasing  volume,  books,  papers,  and  magazines  are 
finding  their  way  into  the  far-off  homes  of  these 
people.  These  serve  to  push  back  contracted  hori- 
zons and  awaken  new  visions  of  life.  From  this 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  59 

middle  station  there  pass  many  each  year  into  the 
higher  class  of  Negroes.  This  constant  reinforce- 
ment, going  quietly  on,  gives  increasing  hopefulness 
to  the  future  of  the  race.  If  the  leaders  find  diffi- 
culty in  clearing  the  way  for  the  race  to  follow, 
those  of  the  middle  class  find  peculiar  difficulty  in 
maintaining  their  footing.  In  the  centers  of  popu- 
lation much  relief  has  come  through  the  agency  of 
savings  banks,  which  the  more  progressive  of  the 
race  are  increasingly  founding.  Throughout  the 
country  the  Negroes  have  well-nigh  fifty  such  insti- 
tutions which  belong  to  the  members  of  the  race  and 
are  conducted  entirely  by  them. 

The  last  class  to  be  noticed  is  that  of  the  thriftless 
and  criminal.  The  representatives  of  this  class  are 
the  hangers-on  about  the  suburban  tenements  of  the 
towns  and  cities  where  they  are  content  to  dwell  in 
poverty  and  vice,  and  often  in  squalor.  Their  homes 
are  often  miserable  abodes,  the  haunts  of  drinkers, 
of  gamblers,  and  of  cocaine  fiends.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  drastic  laws  enacted  to  regulate  the  sale  of 
these  deadly  drugs,  there  are  not  wanting  men  of 
the  white  race  who  sell  them  from  their  shelves  to 
the  ignorant  blacks.  Of  the  inroads  made  by  cocaine 
on  these  unfortunate  people,  through  the  agency 
of  the  conscienceless  whites,  there  is  but  little  known 
save  by  the  investigator  of  conditions  like  these,  and 
the  police  force.  So  much  for  those  who  infest  the 
populous  centers. 

This  criminal  class  is  found  also  in  the  logging 


60  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

camps,  the  mining  regions,  and  on  the  far  interior 
plantations  of  the  South.  It  acts  as  a  serious  hin- 
drance to  the  lower  layer  of  the  great  middle  class. 
Brought  into  frequent  touch  with  this  middle  class, 
the  contact  is  necessarily  contaminating.  Not  infre- 
quently in  the  milling  regions  of  the  South,  this  last 
class  dwells  apart  from  all  others,  in  a  segregated 
camp  of  tents,  or  huts,  where  the  worst  possible  vices 
are  practiced,  and  where  these  men  are  often  boister- 
ous and  dangerous.  From  this  class  come  the  crim- 
inals of  the  race.  The  influence  of  its  members  is 
deadly  wherever  it  touches  the  young  of  any  other 
class.  In  these  segregated  retreats,  or  camps,  these 
desperate  Negroes  are  often  a  terror  to  the  officers 
of  the  law.  To  invade  these  places  is  often  to  take 
one's  life  into  his  own  hands.  Fortunately  this  is 
quite  a  small  percentage  of  the  race,  but  its  deeds 
are  often  heralded  in  such  way  through  the  press  of 
the  country  as  to  imply  that  the  criminals  are  the  fit 
representatives  of  the  entire  race  of  which  they  hap- 
pen to  be  members.  Care  is  thus  taken  to  draw  the 
line  of  cleavage  between  the  several  classes  of  Ne- 
groes, and  to  indicate  their  characteristics,  that  they 
may  not  be  confounded  the  one  with  the  other.  With 
this  faithful  classification  one  need  not  err  with  re- 
spect either  to  the  worthiness  or  the  unworthiness  of 
the  different  classes  into  which  the  Negro  race  of 
the  South  is  divided. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ARE  WE  DEBTORS  TO  THE  NEGRO? 

In  order  to  a  candid  consideration  of  this  ques- 
tion one  will  have  to  bring  to  it  a  divestment  of  all 
preconceived  notions  unfavorable  to  the  Negro  as 
well  as  an  abeyance  of  prejudice.  Either  we  are 
debtors  to  the  Negro  or  we  are  not.  If  so,  how, 
why,  and  to  what  degree?  If  there  be  a  debt  is  it 
one  of  humanity,  or  an  obligation  springing  from 
gratitude,  or  one  involving  legitimate  compensation  ? 
If  there  be  the  possibility  of  obligation,  is  it  not 
proper  that  we  seek  to  find  it,  and  if  discovered,  to 
seek  just  as  diligently  to  meet  it?  It  is  not  insisted 
on  in  the  outset  that  such  obligation  exists,  but  the 
bare  possibility  of  it  invites  investigation.  To  this 
investigation  let  us  now  proceed. 

It  is  not  denied  that,  from  existing  conditions  and 
from  the  relations  between  the  white  and  black  races 
in  the  South,  there  is  prejudice  and  even  repulsion 
oftentimes  on  the  part  of  the  whites.  Much  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  Negro  in  his  relations  to  the 
whites,  he  is  oftener  than  otherwise  seen  at  his 
worst.  This  is  the  side  of  the  race  oftenest  held 
to  the  gaze  of  the  world.  The  slovenly  loiterer 

61 


along  the  streets,  the  denizens  of  the  forbidding 
haunts  of  the  city  suburbs,  the  rough  laborer,  worthy 
or  industrious  though  he  may  be,  but  clad  in  the 
garb  of  the  workman  alike  on  the  streets  and  on  the 
field,  the  court  room  with  its  herd  of  violators,  the 
cell  with  its  inmates,  the  chain-gang  on  the  streets, 
or  the  occupant  in  stripes  on  the  penal  plantation  or 
in  the  workshop  of  the  penitentiary,  and  the  domes- 
tic servant  not  always  honest  in  the  manipulation  of 
the  groceries,  these  conditions  represent  the  race  to 
the  eye  of  the  public,  and  furnish  the  basis  of  the 
popular  estimate  of  the  Negro  race.  In  consequence, 
it  is  more  commonly  understood  than  is  generally 
supposed  that  worth  among  Negroes  is  a  rare  qual- 
ity, and  that  honor  and  honesty  are  the  exceptions. 
And  yet  the  fact  remains  that  there  are  thousands 
among  those,  especially  of  the  servants  in  the  homes, 
who  are  scrupulously  honest  and  entirely  trust- 
worthy. This,  I  think,  is  a  fair  statement  of  the 
case  as  it  generally  prevails. 

The  writers  of  articles  on  the  Negro  for  enter- 
prising journals  from  without  the  South,  as  well  as 
those  on  quaint  and  facetious  characteristics  from 
within  the  South,  present  not  the  laudable  side  of 
the  Negro,  because  that  is  rarely  turned  to  the  eye 
of  the  public.  The  descriptions  often  given  are 
much  like  that  of  the  cocoanut  as  a  fruit  from  a 
description  of  the  outside.  We  revert  to  a  subject 
already  in  part  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter  by 
raising  the  question  of  the  occasion  of  the  presence 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  63 

of  the  Negro  in  America.  He  is  not  here  by  any 
volition  of  his  own,  but  by  coercion;  he  was  re- 
duced to  slavery  which  extended  over  a  period  of 
more'than  two  and  a  half  centuries;  he  labored  with 
a  loyalty  and  faithfulness  unexcelled  by  any  people 
in  similar  servitude;  he  felled  our  virgin  forests, 
and  transmuted  them  into  plantations  of  beauty  and 
profit;  he  built  our  homes,  and  was  the  means  of 
the  education  of  seven  generations  of  Southerners; 
he  furnished  the  means  for  the  establishment  of 
our  commerce;  he  was  for  centuries  the  industrial 
system  of  the  states  of  the  South ;  he  built  the  ships 
which  floated  at  our  wharves  and  which  bore  our 
products  to  distant  parts;  he  laid  our  railway  lines; 
he  filled  our  coffers  with  gold  for  two  hundred  and 
more  years ;  he  furnished  the  means  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  a  number  of  wars,  and  so  far  as  the  people 
of  the  South  are  concerned,  he  sustained  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy  during  the  great  Civil  War;  he 
was  the  guardian  of  the  helpless  women  and  children 
of  the  South  while  the  husbands  and  sons  were  at 
the  distant  front  doing  battle  to  preserve  the  shackles 
of  servitude  on  his  limbs;  against  him  was  not  a 
whisper  of  unfaithfulness  or  of  disloyalty  during  all 
this  trying  and  bloody  period ;  when  the  land  was  in- 
vaded by  the  armies  which  sought  his  freedom,  he 
remained  faithful  still,  and  often  at  great  personal 
risk  of  life,  secreted  from  the  invader  the  horses 
and  mules,  and  buried  the  treasures  of  the  family 
that  they  might  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  ene- 


64  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

mies  of  the  whites,  but  the  friends  of  the  slave  him- 
self;  in  many  thousands  of  instances  he  declined  to 
accept  freedom  when  it  was  offered  by  the  invading 
army,  preferring  to  remain  loyal  and  steadfast  to 
the  charge  committed  to  him  by  the  absent  master, 
all  this  and  more  the  Negro  slave  did.  There  was 
not  a  day  during  the  trying  period  of  the  Civil  War 
when  he  might  not  have  disbanded  the  Southern 
armies.  An  outbreak  on  his  part  against  the  de- 
fenseless homes  of  the  South  would  have  occasioned 
the  utter  dissolution  of  the  Southern  armies,  and 
turned  the  anxious  faces  of  the  veterans  in  gray 
toward  their  homes.  But  no  Southern  soldier  ever 
dreamed  of  the  possibility  of  a  condition  like  this. 
So  far  as  his  home  was  concerned,  it  was  not  any 
apprehension  of  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  slaves 
which  occasioned  the  slightest  alarm. 

What  other  people  known  in  history  ever  behaved 
with  similar  conduct?  Where  was  ever  anomaly 
like  this  ?  There  was  not  wanting  on  the  part  of  the 
slaves  a  knowledge  of  the  occasion  of  the  war. 
There  were  scarcely  any  who  did  not  know  what  was 
involved  in  the  conflict  so  far  as  they  were  con- 
cerned. Yet,  there  was  this  devotion  which  bound 
these  faithful  people  to  their  masters.  History  is 
without  a  parallel  of  conduct  like  this. 

Nor  is  this  all.  When  the  armies  of  the  South 
capitulated  and  freedom  came  with  suddenness  to 
the  Southern  slave,  did  he  assert  his  right  to  any 
portion  of  the  property  of  which  he  was  the  chief 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  65 

creator?  Did  he  set  up  a  claim  which  would  have 
been  the  occasion  of  fresh  disorder  to  the  Southern 
soldier  on  his  return  to  his  home  in  his  tattered 
jacket  of  grey?  So  far  from  that  being  true,  many 
thousands  of  the  recently  enslaved  cordially  joined 
the  family  of  the  returning  veteran  in  affectionate 
greeting  when  he  finally  reached  his  home.  Not 
a  syllable  of  demand,  not  a  murmur  was  heard  from 
the  lips  of  the  millions  of  the  recently  enslaved.  On 
the  other  hand,  many  thousands  readily  joined  in 
the  endeavor  to  save  the  growing  crops  in  the  event- 
ful spring  of  1865,  and  as  much  to  the  Negro  as  to 
any  other  is  the  country  indebted  that  there  was 
not  dire  want  entailed  in  consequence  of  the  war, 
which  would  have  been  in  addition  to  the  disastrous 
effects  of  the  conflict. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  people  other  than  the  Negro 
had  rendered  the  same  service  as  that  rendered  by 
the  slave  during  the  war.  Let  us  suppose  that  mil- 
lions of  Chinese  or  of  Japanese  had  cultivated  the 
crops,  protected  the  families  of  the  absent  soldiers, 
fed  and  clothed  the  armies  for  a  period  of  four  years, 
would  there  be  any  bound  to  our  gratitude  for  the 
service  thus  rendered?  Poets  would  have  extolled 
them  in  song,  and  historians  would  have  embalmed 
them  in  extravagant  praise,  and  our  cities  would 
have  been  adorned  with  monuments  of  gratitude  to 
a  people  so  loyal  and  devoted  to  our  interests.  When 
LaFayette  with  a  handful  of  Frenchmen  came  across 
the  Atlantic  to  assist  in  the  achievement  of  American 


66  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

independence  the  gratitude  of  the  people  knew  no 
bounds,  and  our  historic  pages  are  still  laden  with 
expressions  of  laudation  to  the  disinterested  French. 
Is  less  due  the  Negro,  especially  since  he  came  to 
America  not  of  his  own  will,  but  was  forced  to  our 
shores  and  reduced  to  slavery  for  a  period  cover- 
ing seven  generations  of  the  history  of  his  people  ? 

Still  further,  the  Negro  was  turned  loose  at  the 
period  of  his  emancipation  without  a  penny  in  his 
pocket,  without  a  loaf  of  bread,  and  without  a  shel- 
ter over  his  head.  He  had  not  a  barleycorn  of  land, 
nothing  which  he  could  call  his  own  but  his  muscle 
and  will.  He  had  enriched  the  states  of  the  South 
with  the  cotton  bale  for  many  generations,  he  had 
equally  enriched  New  England  and  the  Middle 
States  by  the  same  means,  and  even  while  the  hub- 
bub of  abolitionism  was  rampant,  he  was  the  chief 
means  of  the  enrichment  of  the  land,  and  what  was 
the  compensation  afforded  him?  He  was  usually 
given  a  miserable  hut  in  which  to  live;  the  scantiest 
clothing,  of  the  coarsest  sort;  he  was  maintained 
on  a  peck  of  corn  meal  and  three  pounds  of  bacon  a 
week;  he  was  denied  any  rights  save  those  of  the 
scantiest  nature;  he  was  forbidden  intellectual  devel- 
opment, as  that  would  have  unfitted  him  for  the 
profitable  servitude  to  which  he  was  subjected;  he 
knew  but  little  of  the  tender  relationship  of  home 
life,  as  families  were  frequently  sundered  in  the  or- 
dinary traffic  of  slaves  as  common  property;  he 
knew  nothing  but  to  labor  from  day  to  day,  and 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  67 

from  year  to  year,  till  he  found  his  last  resting  place 
in  the  humble  grave,  into  which  a  stream  of  seven 
generations  of  slaves  passed  before  the  boon  of  free- 
dom came. 

But  it  is  claimed  that  slavery  was  a  blessing  in 
disguise  to  the  imported  African,  as  by  that 
means  he  came  into  the  possession  of  the  dominant 
language  of  the  globe,  was  taught  the  arts  of 
industry,  and  was  made  a  sharer  in  the  benefits  of 
the  most  splendid  civilization  the  world  has  ever 
known.  There  is  much  plausible  glamor  in  all  this, 
but  is  there  as  much  in  it  for  the  Negro  as  is  ordi- 
narily assumed?  Of  what  use  were  all  these  if  they 
could  not  be  employed  for  his  benefit?  Whatever 
there  was  to  him  was  merely  incidental.  If  the  char- 
acter of  the  Negro  was  not  benefited  was  there  any 
genuine  benefit  at  all?  As  Mark  Hopkins  says, 
"Man  may  have  strength  of  character  only  as  he  is 
capable  of  controlling  his  faculties;  of  choosing  a 
rational  end;  and,  in  its  pursuit  of  holding  fast  to 
his  integrity  against  all  the  might  of  external  na- 
ture." Apply  this  principle  to  the  Negro  in  his 
slavery,  and  what  becomes  of  the  much-boasted  ben- 
efit of  which  we  hear  so  much  ?  The  simple  fact  of 
slavery  itself  neutralized  all  the  so-called  benefit.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  go  into  details  of  the  influence  of 
the  dominating  race  on  the  race  of  slaves.  The  fact 
is  well  known  that  the  animalism  of  the  white  owner 
and  of  others  was  not  conducive  to  the  highest  ideals 
of  character  and  of  life.  To  the  Negro  slave  the 


68  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

white  owner  was  the  ideal  of  manhood.  He  must 
needs  learn  from  his  conduct  what  life  really  is. 
How  much  was  there  in  the  conduct  of  the  whites 
oftentimes  to  contribute  to  the  erection  of  lofty  char- 
acter on  the  part  of  the  Negro  ? 

At  its  best  estate,  slavery  was  degrading  and  im- 
bruting.  The  incidental  advantages  came  far  short 
of  atoning  for  that  of  which  the  Negro  was  the  com- 
pelled recipient.  Entering  on  life  for  himself  he  had 
but  little  to  take  with  him  into  his  untried  sphere. 
Certainly  he  had  nothing  whatever  of  this  world's 
goods.  For  the  incidental  advantages  for  which  so 
much  is  claimed,  the  Negro  is  indebted  more  to 
Providence  than  to  man.  These  slight  advantages 
happened  to  be  inseparable  from  the  degradation 
to  which  he  was  subjected.  The  motive  of  the  slave 
owner  generally  was  that  of  making  the  greatest 
number  of  dollars  out  of  slavish  labor,  and  not  that 
of  benefiting  the  Negro  morally  or  otherwise.  This 
is  a  plain  statement  of  fact,  and  the  fact  speaks  for 
itself. 

Now,  in  view  of  this  array  of  facts,  the  service 
of  the  slave  for  seven  generations ;  the  lack  of  com- 
pensation during  that  long  period ;  the  repression  to 
which  he  was  subjected;  the  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  whites,  a  devotion  uuequalled  in  all  history; 
the  enrichment  of  the  states  by  his  labor ;  the  fact  that 
he  was  turned  loose  without  a  dime  in  his  pocket, 
ignorant  and  defenseless  in  the  presence  of  the  machi- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  69 

nations  of  evil  men,  is  there  nothing  to  suggest 
gratitude  in  all  this?  Is  there  nothing  that  appeals 
to  the  heart  and  conscience  in  his  struggles  to  dis- 
enthrall himself  from  the  conditions  in  which  he 
finds  himself?  After  all  that  can  be  said  against  the 
Negro,  after  the  last  word  is  spoken,  the  facts,  as 
here  presented  remain,  remain  uncontested  in  their 
verity,  and  outweigh  all  that  may  be  said  to  the  con- 
trary. Is  there  not  due  him  in  his  struggles  for  a 
higher  life  at  least  the  stimulation  of  encouraging 
words,  and  not  the  constant  disposition  to  decry 
him?  In  spite  of  his  original  ignorance,  his  dire 
poverty,  the  denial  of  many  of  the  primary  rights 
due  humanity,  and  the  fiercest  competition  ever  en- 
countered by  any  people,  he  has  mastered  many  of 
these,  and  by  dint  of  genuine  merit  has  evoked  the 
admiration  of  the  world. 

With  rapid  strides  the  Negro  has  overcome  the 
dismal  illiteracy  with  which  he  was  originally  laden, 
so  that  of  the  ten  million  which  now  are,  there  are 
six  million  of  them  who  have  risen  above  illiteracy. 
Overcoming  poverty,  the  Negro  has  bought  lands, 
equipped  plantations,  built  many  excellent  homes, 
established  schools,  erected  churches,  founded  places 
of  business,  and  is  moving  on  the  upgrade  to  higher 
and  better  things.  Even  though  the  Negro  had  re- 
mained in  the  leaden  torpor  of  ignorance  where 
emancipation  found  him,  there  would  still  be  the 
obligation  to  assist  him  when  by  virtue  of  an  excel- 


70  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

lence  rarely  shown  by  a  lately  enslaved  race,  he  has 
accomplished  so  much,  and  is  still  pushing  along 
the  plane  of  achievement. 

But  the  claim  is  common  that  the  Negro  is  base, 
worthless,  unreliable,  and  criminal.  These  epithets 
are  quoted  because  they  are  of  frequent  occurrence, 
and  are  popular  in  their  application  to  the  Negro. 
Grant  that  all  is  true,  does  that  forfeit  our  obliga- 
tion to  the  race  which  has  done  so  much  for  us? 
But  these  terms  so  glibly  levelled  against  the  Negro 
are  not  borne  out  by  the  facts  in  the  case,  as  has 
been  shown  in  a  preceding  chapter.  Some  of  these 
may  admit  of  application  to  some  Negroes,  but  cer- 
tainly not  to  the  race,  and  to  only  a  minor  portion 
of  the  race.  But,  admitting  that  they  be  true,  could 
not  the  same  thing  have  been  urged  against  the 
Cubans  when  our  land  enlisted  in  their  behalf 
against  Spain  ?  It  is  certainly  true  of  many  Italians, 
yet  there  was  unstinted  beneficence  exhibited  to  that 
people  when  the  'disaster  at  Messina  came.  It  is 
true  of  every  nation  to  which  the  Christian  churches 
send  missionaries,  and  yet  nobody  hears  all  this  as- 
signed as  a  reason  why  we  should  withhold  mission- 
ary aid  from  the  benighted.  On  the  contrary,  this 
is  assigned  as  the  chief  reason  why  help  should  be 
afforded  the  nations  which  sit  in  darkness.  Why 
then  should  the  American  Negro,  who  has  done  so 
much  for  us,  be  made  an  exception?  Must  we,  be- 
cause of  traditional  prejudice  against  the  Negro,  a 
prejudice  oftener  unfounded  than  otherwise,  deny 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  71 

him  the  aid  which  we  can  afford?  Shall  we  suffer 
ourselves  to  be  betrayed  into  the  inconsistent  atti- 
tude of  withholding  from  the  Negro  the  aid  needed 
on  the  very  grounds  which  furnish  the  most  sub- 
stantial basis  for  assistance? 

We  are  debtors  to  the  Negro,  then,  first  of  all, 
because  of  his  willing  and  obedient  servitude;  be- 
cause of  his  unrequited  labors  in  the  enrichment  of 
the  country;  because  of  the  services  which  he  has 
substantially  and  effectively  rendered  to  our  Ameri- 
can civilization ;  because  of  his  loyalty  and  devotion, 
so  far  as  the  South  is  concerned,  to  her  armies,  her 
cause,  and  the  families  of  the  soldiery,  and  because 
of  his  efforts  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  manhood  in  the 
face  of  unexampled  obstructions. 

Laying  aside  all  preconceived  ideas  of  the  Negro, 
is  there  nothing  due  him?  Dominated  by  a  sense 
of  justice  and  gratitude,  as  we  should  be,  is  there 
nothing  to  be  accorded  him  ?  We  find  in  him  often- 
times an  object  of  merriment,  and  laugh  at  his  weird 
superstitions  and  his  folklore,  and  relish  with  a  gusto 
the  ignorance  of  the  ignorant  among  them.  We 
mete  out  to  him  the  heaviest  penalties  in  our  courts, 
sometimes  without  justice,  and  fill  our  jails  and  peni- 
tentiaries with  his  race.  He  shares  not  in  the  courts, 
excepting  as  a  criminal,  has  no  place  on  the  jury, 
though  his  cause  is  oftenest  adjudicated,  and  in  many 
instances  we  suffer  him  to  undergo  wrong  and  op- 
pression because  he  is  a  Negro.  He  is  denied  in 
many  instances,  any  trial  at  all,  and  miscreant  ofifi- 


72  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

cials  sometimes  suffer  him  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
violent  men  that  they  may  wreak  on  him  their  ven- 
geance. In  his  extremity  we  suffer  him  to  live  in  a 
congested  population  on  the  outskirts  of  our  cities, 
where  he  festers  society  with  abhorrent  vice.  We 
permit  the  drinking  den  to  demoralize  and  debauch 
his  race  by  the  ten  thousand,  or  to  use  him  for  the 
clandestine  sale  of  liquor,  and  the  matter  goes  no 
further  than  to  excite  unfavorable  comment  against 
the  Negro  himself. 

It  is  easy  to  denounce  the  low  Negro,  to  threaten 
and  hang  him,  but  in  a  country  of  Christians  is 
there  not  something  else  that  may  be  done?  Is  it 
not  due  him  from  the  point  of  view  of  humanity 
that  more  be  done  in  his  moral  behalf?  Aid  is  with- 
held from  the  millions  because  of  the  criminality 
of  the  few.  It  is  here  insisted,  and  must  ever  be, 
that  the  criminal  be  duly  punished  for  his  deeds,  but 
is  it  not  better  to  prevent  the  perpetration  of  crime 
by  proper  measures,  than  to  punish  the  offender 
after  the  crime  is  committed  ? 

It  would  seem  in  a  great  Christian  land  that  there 
are  some  measures  that  might  be  adopted  for  the 
improved  moral  condition  of  the  race,  and  not  that 
it  be  permitted  to  suffer  the  utmost  corruption  with- 
out the  slightest  interposition  on  the  part  of  Chris- 
tian men  and  women.  There  are  thousands  of  men 
and  women  among  themselves  who  are  seeking  by 
every  possible  means  to  relieve  their  fallen  ones,  and 
that  work  is  worthy  of  supplement  at  the  hands  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  73 

the  best  whites.  It  is  not  denied  that  in  a  limited 
way  some  do  aid  those  of  the  Negro  race  who  are 
seeking  to  bring  relief  where  it  is  most  needed ;  but 
while  not  abating  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  execution 
of  the  law,  the  gospel  is  a  far  more  wholesome  dis- 
solvent of  wrong-doing  than  the  law.  Is  prejudice 
a  stronger  principle  with  us  than  piety?  If  the 
Negro  be  discounted  because  he  is  a  Negro,  we 
should  remember  our  debt  of  gratitude  to  him  be- 
cause of  the  long  services  of  the  past.  It  would 
seem  that  the  American  people  could  never  get  out 
of  sight  of  this  obligation.  His  services  were  in- 
valuable for  centuries,  and  when  he  was  no  longer 
our  chattel,  we  discard  him  as  the  offscouring  of 
the  earth.  There  is  a  debt  which  we  owe  him, 
whether  we  recognize  it  or  not. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  NEGRO'S  SHARE  IN  BUILDING  THE  NATION. 

The  Negro  has  been  in  America  from  the  time  of 
its  first  occupation  by  white  colonies.  For  a  period 
of  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  he  was 
the  slave  of  the  whites,  and  seven  generations  of  the 
slave  race  lie  buried  in  the  soil  of  the  American 
states.  The  story  of  the  African-American  is  one  of 
toil,  suffering,  privation,  and  largely  of  unrequited 
labor.  In  all  the  revolutions,  ruptures,  and  upheav- 
als of  our  continental  American  life  he  has  been  a 
sharer.  It  is  a  noteworthy  historical  fact  that  the 
first  blood  spilt  in  the  Revolution  was  that  of 
Crispus  Attucks,  an  intrepid  Negro  leader,  and  a 
slave,  who  when  the  British  entered  Boston,  headed 
a  party  of  whites  and  blacks,  using  stones,  clubs, 
and  even  their  clenched  fists  in  resisting  the  invasion. 
Raising  the  cry  that  the  way  to  drive  them  back  was 
to  attack  the  center,  and  suiting  the  action  to  the 
word,  Attucks  led  the  attack,  and  was  the  first  to  fall. 
Three  whites  were  also  killed,  and  the  four  heroes 
were  buried  in  the  same  grave  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  where  Faneuil  Hall  now  stands.  Their 
memory  is  embalmed  in  the  following  lines : 

74 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          75 

"Long  as  in  freedom's  cause  the  wise  contend, 
Dear  to  your  country  shall  your  fame  extend; 
While  to  the  world  the  lettered  stone  shall  tell 
Where  Caldwell,  Attucks,  Gray  and  Manerick  fell." 

It  was  another  Negro,  Peter  Salem,  who  ad- 
vanced to  the  front  of  the  line  at  the  battle  of  Bun- 
ker Hill  and  killed  Major  Pitcairn,  the  British  com- 
mander. Still  another  Negro,  named  Prince,  cap- 
tured General  Prescott,  the  British  commander,  at 
Newport,  Rhode  Island.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Barton 
laid  the  plan  for  the  capture  of  the  British  com- 
mander, and  took  with  him  the  courageous  Negro, 
Prince.  Evading  the  guards,  the  two  men,  Col. 
Barton  and  his  black  attendant,  reached  the  mansion 
in  which  slept  the  British  general.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  force  two  strongly-locked  doors,  and  these 
were  burst  open  by  Prince  butting  them  open.  Com- 
ing into  the  bedchamber  of  General  Prescott,  un- 
attended by  any  other  than  Prince,  Barton  captured 
the  British  commander,  which,  in  turn,  led  to  his 
exchange  for  Gen.  Lee,  who  had  previously  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  British. 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  many  Negro 
troops  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  American  army 
throughout  the  Revolution.  Of  one  of  these,  Salem 
Poor,  honorable  mention  is  made  by  fifteen  white 
men,  in  the  American  army,  who  memorialized  Con- 
gress in  his  behalf,  in  the  following  language : 

"To  set  forth  the  particulars  of  his  conduct  would 
be  tedious ;  we  only  beg  leave  to  say,  in  the  person  of 
this  said  Negro  (Salem  Poor)  centers  a  brave,  gal- 


76  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

lant  soldier.     The  reward  due  so  great  and  distin- 
guished a  character,  we  submit  to  Congress." 

In  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  it  was  under- 
stood that  the  Negroes  who  served  as  soldiers  would 
be  rewarded  by  their  freedom  at  the  close,  but  this 
was  not  done.  Much  more  could  be  said  of  the 
Negro  troops  during  the  Revolution,  but  space  for- 
bids.* His  conspicuousness  in  the  Federal  army  dur- 

*The  following  proclamation  was  issued  by  General 
Andrew  Jackson  a  few  months  before  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans: 

"Headquarters   of  7th   Military   District. 

"Mobile,  September  21,  1814. 
"To  the  free  colored  inhabitants  of  Louisiana: 

"Through  a  mistaken  policy  you  have  heretofore  been 
deprived  of  a  participation  in  the  glorious  struggle  for 
national  rights  in  which  our  country  is  engaged.  This  no 
longer  shall  exist.  As  sons  of  freedom,  you  are  called 
upon  to  defend  our  most  inestimable  blessing.  As  Ameri- 
cans, your  country  looks  with  confidence  to  her  adopted 
children  for  a  valorous  support,  as  a  faithful  return  for 
the  advantages  enjoyed  under  her  mild  and  equitable  gov- 
ernment. As  fathers,  husbands  and  brothers,  you  are 
summoned  to  rally  around  the  standard  of  the  eagle,  to 
defend  all  which  is  dear  in  existence. 

"Your  country,  although  calling  for  your  exertions, 
does  not  wish  you  to  engage  in  her  cause  without  amply 
remunerating  you  for  the  services  rendered.  Your  in- 
telligent minds  are  not  to  be  led  away  by  false  represen- 
tations. Your  love  of  honor  would  cause  you  to  despise 
the  man  who  would  attempt  to  deceive  you.  In  the  sin- 
cerity of  a  soldier  and  the  language  of  truth  I  address 
you.  To  every  noble-hearted,  generous  freeman  of  color, 
volunteering  to  serve  during  the  present  contest  with 
Great  Britain,  and  no  longer,  there  will  be  paid  the  same 
bounty  in  money  and  lands,  now  received  by  the  white 
soldiers  of  the  United  States,  viz.:  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  dollars  in  money,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  of  land.  The  non-commissioned  officers  and  pri- 
vates will  also  be  entitled  to  the  same  monthly  pay  and 
daily  rations,  and  clothes,  furnished  to  any  American 
soldier. 

"On    enrolling   yourselves   in    companies,    the    major- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  77 

ing  the  Civil  War  is  well  known,  and  it  is  also  well 
known  that  measures  were  adopted  to  arm  the  Negro 
for  the  Confederate  service  near  the  close  of  the  war, 
but  its  abrupt  termination  prevented  the  effort. 
Equally  may  it  be  said  that  the  Negro  was  promi- 
nent in  the  war  with  Spain,  but  it  is  not  so  much 
about  the  martial  history  of  the  race  that  I  would 
speak,  as  it  is  concerning  his  service  in  other  spheres. 

general  commanding  will  select  officers  for  your  govern- 
ment from  your  white  fellow-citizens.  Your  non-commis- 
sioned officers  will  be  appointed  from  among  yourselves. 
Due  regard  will  be  paid  to  the  feelings  of  freemen  and 
soldiers.  You  will  not,  by  being  associated  with  white 
men  in  the  same  corps,  be  exposed  to  improper  com- 
parisons or  unjust  sarcasm.  As  a  distinct,  independent 
battalion  or  regiment,  pursuing  the  path  of  glory,  you 
will  undivided,  receive  the  applause  of  gratitude  of  your 
countrymen. 

"To  assure  you  of  the  sincerity  of  my  intentions,  and 
my  anxiety  to  engage  your  valuable  services  to  our 
country,  I  have  communicated  my  wishes  to  the  Gover- 
nor of  Louisiana,  who  is  fully  informed  as  to  the  man- 
ner of  enrollment,  and  will  give  you  every  necessary 
information  on  the  subject  of  this  address. 

"Andrew  Jackson, 
"Major-General  Commanding." 

This  is  taken  from  Nile's  Register,  Vol.  vii,  p.  205. 

From  the  same  source  on  pages  345,  346  will  be  found 
the  fact  that  Adjutant  General  Edward  Livingston,  read 
to  the  colored  troops  of  Jackson's  army,  on  December 
18,  1814,  the  following  address: 

"To  the  men  of  color:  Soldiers!  From  the  shores  of 
Mobile  I  collected  you  to  arms.  I  invited  you  to  share 
in  the  perils  and  to  divide  the  glory  of  your  white 
countrymen.  I  expected  much  from  you,  for  I  was  not 
uninformed  of  those  qualities  which  must  render  you 
formidable  to  an  invading  foe.  I  knew  that  you  could 
endure  hunger  and  thirst  and  all  the  hardships  of  war.  I 
knew  that  you  loved  the  land  of  your  nativity,  and  that, 
like  yourselves,  you  had  to  defend  all  that  is  most  dear 
to  man.  But  you  surpass  my  hopes.  I  have  found  in 
you,  united  to  these  qualities,  that  noble  enthusiasm  which 


78  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

The  history  of  the  Negro  has  been  singularly 
marked  by  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  white  race, 
which  race  enslaved  him  and  made  him  a  drudge 
and  burden-bearer  for  centuries.  As  the  great  tides 
of  influence  and  affluence  swept  on,  the  Negro  was 
kept  in  a  subjected  condition,  toiling  and  suffer- 
ing, not  only  in  an  uncomplaining  way,  but  in  his 
innocence,  singing  as  he  went.  His  plantation  melo- 
dies, quaint  poetic  nature,  weird  superstitions,  and 
undiminished  fealty  are  a  part  of  our  American  his- 
tory. His  is  a  strange  story,  one  of  pathos,  of  ro- 
mance, and  of  love  to  the  white  man,  even  in  the 
depths  of  servitude.  Of  the  wrangles  in  the  press, 
on  the  platform,  and  in  the  nation's  forum  concern- 
ing himself,  most  of  them  knew  but  little,  and  many 
nothing  at  all.  To  him  his  past  history  was  as  blank 
as  his  destiny  was  dark.  The  great  mass  knew  of 
nothing  else  than  that  they  were  to  labor  for  the 
white  man.  The  slave  was  subject  to  his  beck  and 
call,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  never  rebelling, 
never  resisting,  never  revolting,  but  docilely  toil- 
ing on. 
Among  the  races  of -men  the  Negro  has  his  domi- 

impels  to  great  deeds.  Soldiers!  The  President  of  the 
United  States  shall  be  informed  of  your  conduct  on  the 
present  occasion ;_  and  the  voice  of  the  representatives  of 
the  American  nation  shall  applaud  your  valor,  as  your  gen- 
eral now  praises  your  ardor.  The  enemy  is  near.  His 
sails  cover  the  lakes.  But  the  brave  are  united;  and  if  he 
finds  us  contending  among  ourselves  it  will  be  for  the 
prize  of  valor  and  fame,  its  noblest  reward." 

This_  was    also    signed   by    General   Jackson,   and    de- 
livered in  his  name. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  79 

nant  characteristic.  That  of  the  European  or  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  energy,  and  love  of  dominion;  that  of  the 
American  Indian,  is  revenge;  that  of  the  Malay,  is 
craftiness;  that  of  the  Mongolian,  is  theft;  that  of 
the  Negro,  is  docility,  submissiveness.  This  quiet 
passive  virtue  has  made  him  largely  subordinate  to 
others,  hence  his  history  of  long  enslavements.  Of 
this  disposition  the  most  aggressive  and  progressive 
race  has  taken  advantage,  and  for  centuries  held  the 
black  man  in  bondage. 

To  trace  the  history  of  African  slavery  through 
the  territories  and  the  states  would  require  a  sepa- 
rate and  independent  volume,  and  the  matter  will  be 
given  here  only  so  much  notice  as  is  necessary  to 
serve  the  present  purpose.  The  idea  of  general 
emancipation  was  preceded  by  that  of  abolition  of 
the  slave  trade.  In  1787  a  society  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  slave  trade  was  formed  in  London.  This 
led  to  the  abolishment  of  the  slave  trade  by  Great 
Britain,  which  was  followed  by  the  United  States 
and  other  portions  of  the  world  which  had  been  en- 
gaged in  the  traffic.  However,  slavery  continued  as 
an  institution,  till  its  final  overthrow  in  1865.  Some 
of  the  states  had  previously  abolished  slavery  out- 
right, and  others  by  means  of  gradual  emancipation. 
Positive  action  was  taken  by  Vermont  in  1777;  by 
Massachusetts,  in  1780;  New  York  began  the  grad~ 
ual  emancipation  process  in  1799,  and  finally  abol- 
ished slavery  in  1827;  New  Jersey  began  the  same 
plan  in  1804,  and  had  236  slaves  still  living  as  late 


8o  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

as  1850,  and  Pennsylvania  began  gradual  emanci- 
pation in  1780,  and  by  1840  had  64  slaves  within  its 
territory. 

The  favorable  conditions  of  climate  and  of  fertile 
soil  in  the  newer  states  of  the  South,  made  that  re- 
gion the  last  rendezvous  of  the  American  slave. 
The  slave  traffic  continued  in  the  South  till  the  be- 
ginning of  hostilities  between  the  states  in  1861. 
On  the  broad  and  rich  cotton  fields  of  the  South  the 
slave  was  exceedingly  remunerative,  and  the  valu- 
ation of  slave  property  led  to  the  encouragement  of 
the  increase  of  the  race.  The  production  of  the 
dominant  staple,  cotton,  in  increasing  quantities, 
under  slave  labor,  year  by  year,  led  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  two  sections,  notably  of  the  states  of  the 
South,  and  of  those  of  New  England.  Even  while 
New  England  was  the  storm  center  of  abolitionism 
its  cotton  mills  were  steadily  maintained  by  the  sta- 
ple produced  by  the  Southern  slave. 

The  agitation  of  the  question  of  the  freedom  of 
the  slave  once  begun,  it  was  continued  with  increas- 
ing force  and  fervor,  till  in  consequence  of  the  dis- 
cussion of  that  and  of  cognate  questions,  the  states 
were  plunged  into  war.  The  intensity  of  opposi- 
tion to  slavery  was  answered  by  equal  intensity  by 
those  who  advocated  the  perpetuity  of  the  institu- 
tion. Views  were  resolved  into  what  were  regarded 
as  settled  principles,  and  the  utterances  of  certain 
leaders  fell  but  little  short  of  the  oracular  in  the 
estimation  of  the  masses.  An  illustration  of  this 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  81 

principle  was  afforded  in  a  famous  deliverance  from 
Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  on  the  occasion  of 
what  is  called  his  famous  "Corner-Stone  speech," 
at  Savannah,  Georgia,  in  the  early  days  of  1861, 
and  just  a  short  while  before  the  fall  of  Ft.  Sumter. 
Among  other  things,  he  said :  "Many  governments 
have  been  founded  upon  the  principle  of  subordina- 
tion and  serfdom  of  certain  classes  of  the  same  race. 
Such  were,  and  are,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  na- 
ture. Our  system  contains  no  such  violation  of 
nature's  laws.  With  us,  all  the  white  race,  how- 
ever high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  are  equal  in  the  eye 
of  the  law.  Not  so  with  the  Negro ;  subordination 
is  his  place."  Then  referring  to  the  new-born  Con- 
federacy, he  further  said :  "Its  foundations  are 
laid,  its  corner-stone  rests  upon  the  great  truth  that 
the  Negro  is  not  equal  to  the  white  man,  that  slavery, 
subordination  to  the  superior  race,  is  his  natural  and 
normal  condition !"  Still  further  on,  in  the  same  ad- 
dress, Mr.  Stephens  gives  emphasis  to  that  already 
quoted,  by  saying:  "It  is  upon  this,  as  I  have 
stated,  our  social  fabric  is  firmly  planted,  and  I  can- 
not permit  myself  to  doubt  the  ultimate  success  of 
the  full  recognition  of  this  principle  throughout  the 
civilized  and  enlightened  world."  It  was  utter- 
ances like  these  which  made  the  conditions  of  slavery 
ideal  in  the  estimation  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
Southern  people. 

Not  to  trace  further  the  history  of  slavery  in 
the    states,    we    turn    now   to    a   brief    review   of 


82  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  industrial  and  commercial  worth  of  the  Negro 
to  America.  When  the  nineteenth  century  opened 
the  region  extending  from  the  Chattahoochee 
westward  to  the  Pacific  was  one  of  primeval  for- 
ests and  rolling  prairies,  scarcely  touched  by  the 
hand  of  art,  save  here  and  there  in  Louisiana  and 
Texas,  there  were  settlements  of  foreign  folk,  the 
improvements  of  whom  were  the  scantiest,  and  their 
efforts  at  development  the  feeblest.  The  useless 
magnificence  of  Nature  slumbered  in  the  rich  soil, 
unwarmed  by  the  sun,  because  of  the  dense  foliage ; 
the  rivers  rolled  wanton  to  the  sea,  and  the  price- 
less ores  slumbered  untouched  by  the  pick.  Her- 
culean strength  was  needed  to  level  the  forests,  to 
drain  and  fence  the  land,  and  to  evoke  the  slumber- 
ing wealth  from  the  alluvial  soil.  Semitropical  heat 
and  the  poison  of  malaria  had  to  be  encountered  by 
a  fortified  muscularity  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  had 
not,  but  which  the  African  had.  Consequently  the 
African  was  summoned  to  the  gigantic  task. 

A  half  century  later  the  forests  had  disappeared, 
and  expansive  plantations  of  corn,  cotton,  cane,  and 
other  products  overspread  the  same  vast  region,  dot- 
ted here  and  there  with  emporiums  and  marts  of 
trade,  the  bustle  and  din  of  which  filled  the  land; 
steamboats  plied  the  broad  rivers  laden  with  their 
cargoes  of  value,  and  railways  ramified  in  every 
direction  as  arteries  of  commerce;  ships  came  and 
went  from  the  ports,  giving  and  receiving  argosies 
of  wealth;  colleges  throve  where  once  savage  life 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  83 

reigned  supreme,  and  homes  sumptuous  and  luxuri- 
ous adorned  with  domestic  tranquillity  the  wide  ex- 
panse throughout.  This  mighty  transformation  was 
wrought  by  the  labor  of  the  slave.  While  genera- 
tions of  whites  with  increasing  affluence  passed  to 
their  tombs,  living  in  the  luxury  produced  by  the 
slave,  while  living,  and  dying,  their  last  resting 
places  were  marked  by  stately  column  and  mauso- 
leum, themselves  the  product  of  slave  labor,  the 
slave  himself,  toiling  beneath  the  heat,  with  just  a 
sufficiency  of  coarse  food  to  give  him  vitality  to 
labor,  passed  in  a  procession  of  generations  to  hum- 
ble graves,  unmarked  by  art,  and  soon  leveled  to 
the  surface,  and  covered  by  tangled  vines  and  riot- 
ous weeds.  Through  his  lucrative  labor,  luxury, 
wealth,  education,  and  refinement  were  produced  to 
the  enrichment  of  the  nation,  while  the  share  of  the 
slave  was  ignorance,  vice,  penury,  servitude,  an 
humble  cabin,  and  a  few  feet  of  earth  where  he 
found  at  last  a  resting  place  for  his  worn  and  aged 
body. 

Not  the  South  alone  was  developed  in  its  wealth, 
but  New  England  and  the  Middle  States  as  well, 
and,  for  that  matter,  indirectly  old  England  also, 
for  the  cotton  of  the  South  became  one  of  the  chief 
products  of  the  wealth  of  the  world.  With  the 
monumental  wealth  thus  built  and  cemented  by  the 
sweat  of  the  Negro  slave,  can  it  now  be  said  that 
the  Negro  has  forfeited  all  claim  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  American  whites,  because  of  his  blunders 


84  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  misdeeds?  With  the  history  of  an  enriched 
continent  behind  it,  and  with  the  ashes  of  seven 
generations  sleeping  in  the  soil  of  America,  is  there 
nothing  in  a  history  so  tragic  to  appeal  to  a  stronger 
race  to  inspire  this  same  race  of  blacks  to  higher 
planes  of  life? 

The  question  is  not  one  of  mere  sentiment,  it  is 
one  of  profound  principle.  Here  are  the  monu- 
ments of  the  slave's  labor ;  here  are  the  products  of 
his  toil  in  the  prosperity  which  is  today  enjoyed. 
Can  we  disregard  our  obligation  to  this  race  of  ex- 
slaves,  and  dismiss  the  matter  with  a  sneer?  To 
the  Christian  religion,  by  its  injection  into  the  world, 
is  the  bondman  indebted  for  the  elimination  of  sla- 
very. When  Christianity  appeared,  slavery  was 
inextricably  involved  in  the  society  of  the  world, 
and  it  seemed  as  firmly  rooted  in  human  society  as 
are  the  Apennines  in  the  substance  of  Italy.  Enter- 
ing on  the  mission  of  reforming  society  from  within 
outward,  abuses  fled,  and  arrogance  fell  before  its 
sway.  As  fast  as  its  power  widened  over  the  world, 
slavery  grew  gradually  milder,  weaker,  less  crush- 
ing, narrower  in  its  range,  and  more  merciful  in  its 
rule,  until  it  ceased  altogether. 

But  the  work  of  Christianity  is  not  yet  done  with 
respect  to  the  lately  enslaved  race  in  these  American 
states.  The  school  is  most  valuable,  and  it  should 
be  made  more  expansive  and  thorough  in  its  work 
as  an  invaluable  adjunct  to  Christian  effort.  De- 
spite the  efforts  and  clatter  of  the  cheap  politician 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  85 

and  the  mountebank  author  and  lecturer,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Negro,  the  spirit  of  education  is  abroad 
in  the  land,  but  the  higher  and  sterner  assertion  of 
the  ethics  of  the  gospel  must  be  felt  more  potently, 
if  we  would  dissolve  the  grave  difficulty  of  the  pro- 
digious race  problem.  American  Christianity  must 
face  the  issue  and  by  an  insertion  of  its  principles 
into  other  agencies,  into  all  agencies  indeed,  the 
fulcrum  of  the  gospel  must  be  brought  into  play  to 
elevate  a  race  which  is  present  by  the  coercion  of 
our  forefathers,  a  race  which  has  laid  the  foundation 
of  our  national  wealth,  thereby  imposing  on  the 
present  generation  of  whites  a  double  obligation. 
Who  will  dare  say  that  the  gospel  in  its  application 
to  this  great  question  will  prove  inefficacious? 
Sheer  gratitude  on  the  part  of  the  American  Chris- 
tian should  incite  to  aidful  action  in  behalf  of  the 
Negro.  A  lofty  sense  of  duty,  independent  of  grati- 
tude, should  impel  to  his  assistance,  and  the  claims 
of  the  Negro  to  Christian  agency  are  undeniable. 

Let  it  be  said  again,  that  if  the  race  was  still  in 
the  throes  of  a  degraded  condition  we  could  not 
spurn  its  claims,  but  since  it  is  struggling,  and  by 
every  possible  sacrifice  is  seeking  to  raise  itself  to 
usefulness  and  respectability,  the  better  among  them 
seeking  by  every  possible  means  to  lift  the  fallen,  is 
there  not  in  view  of  these  conditions  an  appeal  pa- 
thetic and  tragic  which  is  made  to  the  heart  of  every 
Christian?  After  the  utmost  that  can  be  offered 
against  the  Negro  be  urged,  Christian  obligation 


86  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

remains.  No  amount  of  argumentation  relieves  the 
obligation;  no  evasion  displaces  it.  The  Negro  is 
here,  and  in  the  providence  of  God  he  is  destined  to 
remain.  He  is  a  fixed  element  of  our  civilization. 
He  is  here  by  compulsion ;  he  will  remain  here  from 
necessity.  As  the  recipients  of  his  unrequited  toil 
of  centuries,  shall  we  now  show  him  only  indiffer- 
ence and  suffer  him  to  scramble  for  a  footing  in  the 
race  for  life  ?  Is  it  the  duty  of  the  Christian  public 
to  regard  with  icy  indifference  the  wrongs  frequently 
done  the  Negro  without  a  word  of  protest,  and  with- 
out the  exercise  of  some  effort  in  his  behalf?  To 
pursue  a  course  other  than  that  of  substantial  and 
helpful  consideration,  is  at  variance  with  the  sim- 
plest principles  of  the  gospel. 

We  have  spoken  of  his  contributions  to  the  civili- 
zation of  America;  it  has  been  shown  how  by  his 
energy  and  sweat  and  life  he  has  aided  in  building 
the  nation;  how  he  has  transformed  the  wilderness 
into  gardens  of  plenty  and  of  beauty;  how  he  has 
supplied  the  means  of  our  splendid  commerce  ancf 
sent  it  over  the  world ;  how  he  has  educated  genera- 
tions of  our  people  while  his  share  has  been  that  of 
dismal  ignorance;  how  he  has  fed  our  armies, 
shielded  our  families,  guarded  our  interests  with  a 
jealousy  that  was  remarkable  and  without  parallel 
in  the  history  of  peoples;  how,  "when  liberated,  he 
took  up  his  line  of  march,  he  knew  not  whither, 
without  means,  without  knowledge,  without  expe- 
rience, and  yet  emerging  from  a  condition  like  this, 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  87 

he  has  made  himself  worthy  by  his  own  merit ;  how 
he  is  struggling  against  the  odds  still  frowning  be- 
fore him  and  disputing  his  commendable  efforts ;  how 
he  does  not  pine  and  seek  pity  at  the  hands  of  a 
stronger  race,  but  with  herculean  struggle  is  seek- 
ing to  overcome — is  there  not  in  all  this  a  pathetic 
appeal  to  the  heart  of  Christianity?  Nor  has  the 
Negro  ceased  to  be  useful  and  a  producer  of  pros- 
perity. His  accumulated  millions  of  property  are 
a  material  fact  patent  alike  to  all.  As  he  advances 
and  is  elevated,  his  usefulness  expands,  his  devotion 
to  country  increases,  his  value  as  a  resident  and  citi- 
zen improves,  his  power  of  production  of  wealth  is 
enhanced. 

Does  this  condition  not  impose  an  additional  obli- 
gation on  the  Caucasian  Christian  of  America  to  ex- 
tend to  the  "brother  in  black"  every  possible  means 
of  protection  and  of  assistance?  Let  each  answer 
for  himself. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SERIOUS  BARRIERS  TO  NEGRO  PROGRESS. 

Few  stop  sufficiently  long  to  consider  the  immense 
disadvantages  with  which  the  Negro  is  compelled 
to  battle  in  order  to  gain  a  footing  as  a  man  and 
citizen,  in  demonstration  of  his  right  to  live,  and  be 
respected  on  the  scene  of  his  late  servitude.  Like 
the  bird  emerging  from  its  shell  into  the  wide  uni- 
verse of  being,  without  moving  the  distance  of  an 
inch,  the  Negro  has  been  delivered  from  his  bonds 
and  the  narrow  confines  of  his  servitude  without 
stirring  beyond  his  original  habitat,  and  ushered 
into  a  universe  of  limitless  possibility.  It  has  been 
a  change  of  condition  and  of  relation  rather  than 
one  of  linear  measurement.  Right  within  sight  of 
the  old  plantation  and  the  remembered  scenes  of  its 
exacting  discipline,  the  cabin  of  discomfort  and  the 
graveyard  hardby — right  in  the  midst  of  scenes  like 
these  must  the  mettle  of  the  race  be  tested,  its  vir- 
tues tried. 

How  poorly  equipped  the  Negro  was  for  the  ini- 
tial encounters  with  the  surrounding  difficulties,  we 
each  know.  With  what  he  had  to  contend  by  con- 
tact with  the  best  qualified  race  of  the  globe,  we 

88 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  89 

know,  and  the  disadvantage  with  which  he  had  to 
begin  the  struggle,  we  are  each  aware.  Nominally 
free,  he  was  handicapped  by  ignorance,  inexperience, 
and  by  the  absence  of  means  with  which  even  to 
make  a  beginning.  This  was  the  first  serious  bar- 
rier encountered  by  the  race  to  which  freedom  sud- 
denly came,  and  every  one  recognizes  that  difficul- 
ties such  as  have  been  named  would  have  been  seri- 
ous to  any  people.  In  daily  contact  with  his  original 
owner,  with  relations  between  them  now  radically 
changed,  with  the  former  master  smarting  under 
the  sting  and  humiliation  of  defeat,  and  the  deeper 
and  sorer  sting  of  a  wrecked  fortune,  a  large  part  of 
which  the  Negro  himself  was,  was  itself  not  an 
indifferent  factor  in  the  sum  of  disadvantages  with 
which  the  ex-slave  had  to  contend.  Whether 
thought  of  or  not,  these  barriers  were  of  a  most 
serious  character  to  the  recently  enslaved  man  in 
black.  Add  to  this  the  more  serious  and  distressing 
condition  of  poverty  bequeathed  to  the  Negro  in  his 
emancipation.  Absolutely  penniless,  four  and  a 
half  million  people  were  turned  adrift  on  the  world 
with  no  hope  but  that  which  would  come  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  sheer  muscle.  The  world  never  before 
witnessed  a  condition  like  this  with  respect  to  any 
people. 

Great  as  these  disadvantages  were,  they  were 
trifling  compared  with  those  which  were  destined  to 
follow.  Sadly  duped  into  the  corruptest  of  polit- 
ical conditions,  conditions  which  will  require  many 


90  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

years  to  overcome,  and  made  the  victim  and  the 
scapegoat  of  a  system  concocted  by  the  worst  of 
men,  who  preyed  on  the  credulity  of  the  ignorant 
Negro  to  his  own  fell  disadvantage,  the  wonder  is 
that  the  race  was  able  at  all  to  survive  the  ordeal. 
Here  was  the  most  serious  crisis  of  the  Negro,  and 
one  that  met  him  at  the  threshold  of  his  new-born 
freedom.  Had  the  Negro  gone  to  work  deliberately 
to  engender  an  aversion,  the  deepest  of  which  the 
whites  were  capable,  he  could  not  have  more  effect- 
ually succeeded.  Yet  in  all  this  the  Negro  was  not 
so  blameworthy  as  were  the  vultures  who  fattened 
on  his  mistakes,  and  when  the  worst  had  been  done, 
these  same  harpies  fled,  leaving  the  Negro  to  shoul- 
der the  consequences.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  Negro 
in  his  relations  to  others  was  at  a  grave  disadvan- 
tage. Could  the  scenes  and  events  crowded  into 
the  tragical  drama  of  reconstruction  been  averted, 
the  Iliad  of  the  Negro's  woes  would  never  have  been 
so  great.  In  the  light  of  the  subsequent  capabilities 
of  the  Negro,  his  original  barriers  might  have  been 
easily  overcome;  but  with  an  incubus  like  this, 
all  his  other  advantages  were  aggravated.  The 
graver  lent  emphasis  to  the  lesser. 

But  then  his  difficulties  did  not  end  here.  He  is 
a  man  with  a  dark  skin  which  is  the  inevitable  occa- 
sion of  aversion  to  the  white  races.  This  has  been 
true  in  all  ages,  and  was  the  occasion  of  the  serious 
rupture  between  the  great  lawgiver,  Moses,  and  hi* 


.       91 

brother  and  sister,  because  the  renowned  brother 
had  taken  for  a  wife  the  Cushite  woman.* 

Besides  all  this,  still,  the  Southern  Negro  had 
been  a  slave,  and  this  stigma  he  has  to  bear,  no  mat- 
ter what  his  merits  be.  This,  too,  has  always  been 
an  obstruction  to  an  enslaved  race,  till  it  has  been 
able  to  be  overcome  by  time.  To  the  Negro  it  is  a 
peculiar  disadvantage  in  the  South  for  reasons  that 
are  obvious.  In  spite  of  himself,  and  in  spite  of  his 
promptings  of  generosity,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  arro- 
gant in  his  assertion  among  other  races  which  he  may 
touch. 

Wherever  found  over  the  globe,  he  is  self- 
assertive  and  dominating  in  spirit.  This  is  not  said 
captiously,  but  stated  as  a  mere  fact.  He  must  be 
superior  or  nothing.  That  superiority  is  claimed 
by  himself  wherever  he  has  found  his  place  on  the 
globe.  Brought  into  contact  with  the  proudest  seg- 
ment of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  ex-slave,  a  black 
man,  was  at  once  at  a  disadvantage.  Any  one  of  the 
disadvantages  named  would  have  been  serious  in 
the  pathway  of  a  race  similarly  conditioned,  but  all 
of  them  were  the  Negro's.  How  has  the  Negro  met 
these  difficulties?  The  answer  is  found  in  his 
achievements  during  the  last  thirty  years,  for  his 
exploits  as  a  race  did  not  begin  till  after  the  throes 
of  years.  It  is  answered  by  a  leadership  which  chal- 

*See  Numbers  XII,  and  especially  Geike's  "Old  Testament 
Characters,"  p.  122,  and  Birch's  "Ancient  Egypt,"  p.  81. 


92  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

lenges  the  admiration  of  all;  by  the  32,000  youths 
of  the  Negro  race  engaged  in  the  acquirement  of 
trades  and  valuable  occupations;  in  the  300,000 
farms  purchased  and  owned  by  the  Negroes ;  by  the 
400,000  homes  built  and  owned  by  the  race;  by  the 
fifty  or  more  banks  established  and  maintained  by 
Negro  capital;  by  the  10,000  places  of  business 
found  in  the  cities  of  the  country ;  by  the  $600,000,- 
ooo  worth  of  taxable  property  in  the  possession  of 
Negro  owners ;  by  the  28,000  public  schools  manned 
by  30,000  Negro  teachers;  by  the  170  industrial 
schools  and  colleges  conducted  by  the  Negroes  of 
the  country,  and  by  the  23,000  ministers,  and 
26,000  churches  owned  and  paid  for  by  the  Ne- 
groes, to  say  nothing  of  the  large  number  of  mis- 
sionaries on  the  distant  and  different  fields  of  the 
globe. 

Facing  the  future  with  a  will  and  a  pluck  un- 
daunted by  difficulty,  and  led  by  men  of  wisdom  and 
of  expansive  policies  and  of  great  achievement,  the 
Negro  has  made  himself  an  exception  among  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  in  the  rapidity  of  his  advance- 
ment. Never  was  a  more  herculean  task  under- 
taken, than  was  that  of  the  Negro  in  his  emergence 
from  the  environment  by  which  he  was  at  first  beset 
behind  and  before,  and  never  were  achievements 
more  signal.  Here  are  the  facts  to  speak  for  them- 
selves. We  may  answer  some  things,  but  facts  we 
must  accept.  The  penalty  of  leadership  was  never 
greater  than  was  that  imposed  on  the  intrepid  men 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  93 

and  women  who  essayed  to  lead  their  people  out  of 
the  tangled  wilderness  of  difficulty  in  which  they 
found  themselves  a  few  years  after  the  boon  of 
emancipation  came.  What  was  the  task  imposed 
on  these  daring  and  untutored  leaders,  few  in  num- 
ber, and  themselves  forced  to  pick  slight  advantages 
along  the  way — the  task  coolly  assumed,  with  diffi- 
culties blocking  every  inch  of  the  struggling  march  ? 
Though  themselves  once  young  slaves,  and  bearing 
the  traditional  reproach  of  such  consequences,  they 
placed  themselves  beneath  the  burden  of  lifting  to 
a  higher  place  in  life  millions  of  ignorant,  black  and 
despised  ex-slaves.  More  than  that,  these  same 
leaders  had  largely  to  assume  the  responsibility  of 
the  numerous  shortcomings  of  as  stolid  a  mass  of 
ignorance  as  ever  sought  to  follow.  As  the  years 
have  gone,  there  have  been  rained  on  the  devoted 
heads  of  these  pioneers  of  the  race  abuse  and  male- 
diction not  a  little,  but  with  philosophic  serenity 
they  have  met  it  all,  and  are  still  doing  so.  In  their 
bewildering  struggles  these  primary  leaders  were 
beset  behind  and  before — behind  by  a  tremendous 
load  which  they  were  seeking  to  draw;  before,  by 
barriers  which  required  the  utmost  tact  and  skill  to 
overcome.  How  well  the  task  has  been  performed, 
let  the  monuments  of  their  labors  tell.  These  daunt- 
less spirits  of  a  despised  race  will  go  down  in  history 
as  the  builders  of  a  new  race,  unencumbered  by  the 
traditions  of  a  past.  To  them  the  unwritten  and 
unlettered  history  of  a  Dark  Continent  is  an  abso- 


94  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

lute  blank.  This  is  what  has  been  aptly  called  the 
re-emergence  of  Africa  in  another  and  distant  land. 
They  have  set  in  operation  agencies  which  are  full 
of  prophetic  meaning.  They  have  astonished  the 
age  with  their  tremendous  strides.  They  have 
silenced  opposition,  once  rife  and  popular,  that  the 
race  would  rapidly  decay  and  pass  away.  They 
have  hushed  into  muteness  the  clamor  once  raised 
that  in  individual  endeavor  they  would  fail,  and 
lapse  again  into  barbarism.  They  have  adjusted 
themselves  to  the  favoring  breezes  of  the  times,  and 
are  being  borne  toward  the  same  port  of  destiny  as 
are  others.  In  scholastic  work,  in  industry,  in 
commerce,  in  manufacture,  in  the  creation  of  wealth, 
in  missionary  endeavor  in  distant  parts,  in  all  that 
enters  into  modern  life,  they  are  quietly  coming  and 
bringing  to  pass.  And  all  this  is  being  accom- 
plished in  spite  of  the  difficulties  strong  and  formid- 
able met  at  every  step  of  the  way.  They  have  but 
little  without  to  cheer,  much  to  retard.  They  have 
been  scorned,  ridiculed,  obstructed,  and  yet  the 
march  has  been  an  onward  one.  They  have  illus- 
trated the  spirit  of  the  lines  of  Gerald  Massey : 

"We  are  beaten  back  in  many  a  fray, 
But  newer  strength  we  borrow; 

Where  the  vanguard  rests  today, 
The  rear  shall  camp  tomorrow." 

With  an  optimism  peculiar  to  the  race,  they  have 
declined  to  be  hindered  by  the  past  and  move  with 
unquailing  front  toward  the  future.  While  others 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  95 

have  philosophized  about  their  incompetency  and 
prophesied  their  racial  doom,  they  have  quietly 
toiled  like  the  coral  insect  in  the  depths,  building 
their  fortunes,  and  rooting  deep  their  own  cherished 
institutions. 

If  under  the  burden  of  the  difficulties  already  re- 
counted, ignorance,  inexperience,  poverty,  the  impo- 
sition of  vicious  white  men  prompted  by  fell  design, 
the  paralysis  of  the  drinking  den,  racial  opposition 
and  obstruction,  and  the  bitter  residuum  of  it  all, 
which  was  the  sum  total  left  the  Negro — if  from 
conditions  like  these  he  could  rally  and  climb  so  far 
up  the  hill  within  so  brief  a  span  of  years,  he  should 
now  be  able,  with  advantages  immensely  superior, 
to  intensify  the  brightness  of  his  future.  When  the 
jubilee  of  their  emancipation  shall  come,  the  Ne- 
groes of  America  should  be  able,  in  some  substantial 
and  spectacular  way,  to  demonstrate  by  an  accumu- 
lation of  illustrations  of  their  achievements  these 
facts  in  some  central  exposition.  The  history  of  their 
successes  is  known  only  in  part;  let  it  be  grouped 
in  tangible  shape  and  set  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  By  an  exposition  of  this  kind  prejudicial 
barriers  will  largely  give  place  to  encouraging  won- 
der and  surprise,  and  fresh  inspiration  will  be  im- 
parted to  many  lagging  spirits  of  the  race. 

One  of  the  essential  necessities  of  the  Negro  race 
just  now  is,  an  exalted  racial  pride.  One  who  is 
ashamed  of  being  a  Negro  and  who  assumes  to  ape 
others  is  unworthy  of  the  race.  It  should  be  the 


96  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

aspiration  of  every  negro  to  invest  the  name  of  the 
race  with  honor,  dignity,  and  worth.  With  a  racial 
patriotism  like  this,  a  patriotism  which  inspires 
other  races,  an  increasing  propulsion  will  be  given 
the  upward  movement  of  the  Negro  people.  Stand- 
ing full  in  the  gaze  of  the  world  for  almost  a  half 
century,  as  its  fortunes  have  ebbed  and  flowed  in  a 
mighty  grapple  with  impediments  of  every  kind, 
and  wringing  victory  from  multiplied  catastrophes 
and  calamities,  the  Negro  has  awakened  questions 
as  to  the  limit  of  the  possibility  of  accomplishment 
of  his  race,  as  well  as  the  possible  effect  of  his 
people  on  the  future  destiny  of  the  country  and  of 
the  world.  That  which  was  once  exceptional  in  the 
leadership  of  the  race,  which  itself  was  discounted 
because  it  was  esteemed  as  only  exceptional,  and 
therefore  proving  nothing  for  the  Negro  race  as  a 
whole,  is  annually  becoming  more  common,  as  the 
ranks  of  the  worthy  are  swelling  and  their  accom- 
plishments are  multiplying. 

Yet  while  much  has  been  done,  much  more  re- 
mains to  be  done.  There  are  still  numerous  ob- 
structions to  be  met,  many  difficulties  to  be  over- 
come. From  present  indications  there  is  no  prim- 
rose path  for  the  Negro  in  the  years  of  the  imme- 
diate future.  On  his  merit  he  must  rely  in  the  fu- 
ture as  in  the  past.  He  must  insist  on  making  him- 
self an  indispensable  adjunct  of  American  civiliza- 
tion. In  all  the  stations  occupied,  from  the  lowliest 
boot-black  on  the  streets  to  the  office  of  the  bank 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          97 

president  and  the  professor's  chair  in  the  institution 
of  learning,  his  proficiency  must  be  such  as  to  make 
him  an  object  of  demand.  This  has  been  the  spirit 
of  such  schools  as  those  at  Hampton  and  Tuskegee, 
and  of  others  as  well ;  this  has  animated  the  business 
interests  established  and  maintained  throughout  the 
country,  and  this  principle  must  be  sternly  main- 
tained. Confidence  is  the  pivot  of  the  Negro's  ulti- 
mate hope  of  success.  Because  of  the  traditional 
defects  attributed  to  the  race  in  the  past,  the  eye  of 
the  public  will  be  more  keenly  riveted  on  this  than 
on  any  other  element  which  will  enter  into  the  life 
and  success  of  the  Negro.  That  this  confidence  is 
steadily  growing  in  public  esteem,  and  growing  be- 
cause of  that  which  the  Negro  has  accomplished,  is 
evident  on  all  hands.  He  must  discourage  lawless- 
ness, must  inspire  virtue,  must  awaken  yet  more  and 
more  integrity.  In  cool  disregard  of  obstructions 
in  the  past  he  has  pressed  on,  and  has,  in  innumer- 
able instances,  pushed  his  way  to  success.  To  abate 
this  spirit  one  jot  or  tittle,  would  mean  his  down- 
ward turn  in  life.  To  compel  the  public  recognition 
of  merit  by  wisely-directed  pluck  and  unabated  per- 
sistency is  the  fulcrum  by  means  of  which  the  race 
will  steadily  rise  in  the  American  states.  That 
these  have  been  many  times  illustrated  in  the 
achievements  wrought  by  Negroes,  is  an  earnest  of 
the  future  success  of  the  race. 

Booker  Washington  beginning  at  Tuskegee  in  a 
chicken-house  for  a  school-room,  and  a  blind  mule 


98  THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  one  hoe  on  a  few  acres  of  land,  and  that  poor; 
beginning  at  a  time  when  prejudice  against  the 
Negro  was  suprerne,  and  evolving  from  contemptible 
conditions  like  these  the  greatest  Negro  industrial 
institution  in  the  world,  with  its  more  than  a  hun- 
dred buildings  of  architectural  attractiveness,  all 
built  by  materials  manufactured  by  the  students 
themselves  and  erected  by  these  same  students ;  with 
the  halls  yearly  thronged  by  from  fourteen  to  fifteen 
hundred  students ;  Boyd  assuming  to  establish  a  pub- 
lishing plant  at  Nashville,  without  a  cent  of  capital, 
and  yet  succeeding  in  the  erection  of  a  plant  within 
a  few  years  the  value  of  which  is  quoted  by  Dun  at 
$313,000;  Pettiford  opening  a  savings  bank  in  the 
city  of  Birmingham  by  placing  a  table  for  the  re- 
ceipt of  deposits,  and  after  a  few  years  having  a 
capital  stock  of  more  than  $40,000,  with  authorized 
stock  of  $100,000,  and  with  deposits  of  $132,000; 
Groves  working  at  forty  cents  a  day  on  a  potato 
farm  in  Kansas,  and  now  worth  $100,000,  and  the 
acknowledged  "potato  king"  of  Kansas;  Preston 
Taylor,  the  preacher-financier  of  Nashville,  an  orig- 
inal slave  lad  from  Louisiana,  now  worth  $250,000 ; 
R.  F.  Boyd,  a  country  lad  reared  on  a  farm  in  Giles 
County,  Tennessee,  now  one  of  the  most  skillful 
surgeons  in  Nashville,  irrespective  of  color,  and  a 
man  who  has  amassed  a  fortune;  Harry  Todd,  of 
Darien,  Georgia,  once  a  slave,  but  now  worth  $600,- 
ooo,  the  wealthiest  Negro  in  Georgia,  and  hundreds 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN  99 

of  others,  that  might  be  named,  are  the  illustrations 
of  what  the  Negro  is  accomplishing. 

Yet  a  little  more  than  a  generation  ago,  some  of 
these  whose  names  and  successes  are  here  recorded, 
were  slaves  in  the  cramped  quarters  on  Southern 
plantations.  Each  has  met  every  adverse  condition 
raised  in  his  way,  has  conquered  it,  and  become  an 
accomplished  success. 

It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  some  others 
of  the  races  would  have  gone  to  pieces  under  the 
collisions,  catastrophes,  and  disasters  of  various 
kinds  encountered  by  the  Negroes,  but  by  dint  of 
flexible  pluck,  thousands  of  them  have  attained  to 
eminence  in  agricultural,  commercial,  scholastic,  and 
professional  life,  and  are  worthy  of  the  highest  meed 
of  praise. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

VALUE  OF  THE  NEGRO  TO  OUR  CIVILIZATION. 

The  well-nigh  all-pervasive  idea  of  commercial- 
ism in  the  American  mind  reduces  almost  every 
question  to  the  basis  of  the  single  principle — "Will 
it  pay?"  The  estimate  of  causes  and  movements, 
of  whatever  kind,  turns  largely  on  this  question,  and 
the  consequent  decision  of  acceptance  or  rejection 
is  founded,  for  the  most  part,  on  this  idea. 

It  is  proposed  to  discuss  the  so-called  Negro  ques- 
tion from  this  commercial  point  of  view,  or  to  raise 
and  face  the  question  fairly  and  frankly  as  to 
whether,  after  all,  it  is  worth  while  to  shield  and 
protect  the  Negro  against  imposition,  and  to  seek 
to  promote  his  welfare,  or  whether  we  shall  crush 
him  as  an  unworthy  element  of  civilization. 
Wherein  lies  the  intrinsic  advantage  of  protecting, 
defending,  and  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  Negro  ? 
In  the  prosecution  of  a  policy  like  this,  would  there 
accrue  any  value  to  the  community  or  to  the  country 
at  large?  After  all,  is  the  Negro  worth  it?  Is 
there  a  probability  that  there  would  be  any  financial 
return  commensurate  with  the  expenditure  of  inter- 
est in  his  behalf  ?  Is  the  presence  of  the  Negro  one 

100 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         101 

of  value  or  of  disadvantage,  especially  to  the  states 
of  the  South  ? 

Aside  from  all  other  considerations  such  as  those 
of  humanity,  philanthropy,  or  Christianity,  which 
are  elsewhere  discussed  in  the  present  volume,  let 
us  see  if  there  is  a  financial  remuneration  connected 
with  his  continued  presence  among  us.  Considering 
now  alone,  as  far  as  possible,  our  relation  to  the  sub- 
ject in  its  bald  financial  aspect,  would  there  be  a  cor- 
respondingly remunerative  return,  if  the  Negro 
were  granted  conditions  by  means  of  which  he  could 
enjoy  an  unbroken  sense  of  protection  by  the  guar- 
antee of  simple  justice  which  is  constitutionally  pro- 
vided for  all  alike,  and  which  finds  expression  in  the 
democratic  axiom — "Equal  rights  to  all,  special 
privileges  to  none?" 

It  is  a  principle  of  common  observation  relative  to 
all  classes  of  our  people,  and  certainly  of  the  industrial 
history  of  the  Negro  race  during  the  last  few  dec- 
ades, that  so  soon  as  security  is  given,  improvement 
begins.  Assure  every  man  of  the  fruits  of  his  exer- 
tions, and  of  his  certain  protection  equally  with  all, 
and  a  fresh  spirit  is  excited  for  worthy  accomplish- 
ment, and  he  is  naturally  incited  to  his  best  en- 
deavor. Everywhere  the  principle  obtains  that  se- 
curity produces  industry,  while  insecurity  equally 
produces  idleness  and  criminality.  Men  can  be 
induced  to  work  by  only  two  motives — hope  and 
fear ;  the  former  the  motive  of  the  free  laborer,  the 
latter,  that  of  the  slave. 


102          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

It  is  but  the  statement  of  a  fact  commonly  known, 
that  there  is  a  large  minority  of  the  sentiment  of  the 
white  population  of  the  people  of  the  South  which 
is  opposed  to  the  Negro.  Without  now  stopping  to 
name  the  alleged  grounds  of  such  opposition,  it  can 
be  said  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  some  of  this  oppo- 
sition shows  itself  in  forms  that  are  moderate,  ex- 
tending no  further  than  to  expressions  of  contempt, 
scorn  or  ridicule,  while  much  of  it  is  quite  hostile, 
manifesting  itself  in  different  forms  of  imposition, 
and  sometimes  in  acts  of  cruelty  and  in  shocking 
expressions  of  violence.  Not  infrequently  from  this 
hostile  class  come  such  expressions  as,  "It  were  bet- 
ter if  we  had  no  Negroes  in  the  country."  It  is  fair 
to  assume  that  this  and  similar  expressions  are  the 
result  of  hasty  and  inconsiderate  speech,  rather  than 
of  serious  sentiment.  There  are  not  wanting  among 
such,  and  they,  of  course,  the  more  reasonable,  those 
who  when  the  subject  is  reduced  to  logical  demon- 
stration, will  materially  modify  such  sentiments. 

In  order  that  the  question  may  be  brought  fully 
before  us  on  its  merits,  and  the  flimsiness  of  a  posi- 
tion like  this  be  shown,  let  us  suppose  it  possible  to 
remove,  in  a  single  day,  every  Negro  from  the  coun- 
try. Let  every  place  occupied  by  him  in  the  home, 
as  a  cook,  hostler,  gardener,  butler,  porter,  or  waiter ; 
every  farm,  mine,  shop,  school — every  place  be  va- 
cated by  the  Negro,  how  many  of  those  who  now 
reproach  him  would  consent  to  this?  A  partial 
illustration  of  the  howl  of  objection  which  would  be 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         103 

raised  to  a  procedure  like  this  is  afforded  now  and 
then,  when  agents  from  one  part  of  the  South  invade 
other  parts  to  offer  peculiar  inducements  to  laborers 
to  remove  elsewhere.  On  occasions  like  this,  it  has 
sometimes  been  interesting  to  note  what  a  popular 
uprising  is  produced  against  the  removal  of  the 
much-hated  Negro. 

But  to  all  this  it  may  be  said  in  reply  that  the 
Negro  is  the  only  source  of  labor,  but  if  he  were  out 
of  the  way,  other  laborers  would  supply  his  place. 
What  others?  This  question  brings  us  to  the  core 
of  the  discussion.  No  one  at  all  familiar  with  labor 
conditions  in  this  and  in  other  countries,  can  be 
unaware  of  the  fact  that  in  a  number  of  respects,  so 
far  as  the  South  is  concerned,  the  labor  of  the  Negro 
surpasses  that  of  any  other.  Nor  can  the  proposi- 
tion be  questioned  by  any  one  of  fair  and  candid 
mind,  that  the  capabilities  of  the  Negro,  as  a  class, 
expand  and  develop  in  proportion  to  his  opportuni- 
ties to  improve. 

If  again  the  answer  be  made  that  white  men  till 
the  lands  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  can  do 
so  here,  if  necessity  demands,  it  is  only  sufficient  to 
say,  in  reply,  that  white  laborers  in  the  West  and 
Northwest  would  be  unable  to  perform  the  same 
amount  of  labor  beneath  the  burning  suns  of  the 
South.  Yet,  if  it  still  be  said  that  white  men  by  the 
thousand  labor  on  the  fields  of  the  South,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  their  tillage  is,  almost  without 
exception,  confined  to  the  lighter  and  thinner  soils. 


J04          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Who  sees  white  men  tilling  the  stiff,  heavy  and  fer- 
tile soils  of  the  Southern  states — soils  the  staple 
product  of  which  has  made  the  South  famous 
throughout  the  world?  The  large  planters  of  the 
South,  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  power  of 
endurance  can  be  undergone  by  none  so  well  as  by 
the  black  laborer,  rarely  engage  the  services  of  a 
white  man.  Appreciating  the  value  of  the  Negro 
laborer,  these  employers  come  by  an  instinctive  law 
to  prize  the  Negro  as  a  man,  and  if  they  know  his 
faults,  they  know  his  merits  as  well,  and  as  a  rule, 
this  class  is  the  readiest  to  defend  him.  Promiscu- 
ous and  wholesale  denunciation  of  the  Negro  rarely 
comes  from  this  class  of  Southern  whites.  If  they 
pity,  and  sympathize  with  the  weaker  elements 
among  them,  they  equally  applaud  the  worth  and 
merit  of  the  others.  Never  from  this  class  of  whites 
come  abuse  and  violence.  No  one  ever  hears  from 
this  representative  class  of  Southerners  an  appre- 
hension of  that  delusive  fad  and  politically  popular 
will-o'-the-wisp  —  social  equality.  Representative 
people  like  these  have  no  fear  that  their  social  stand- 
ing is  in  danger  of  being  impaired  by  the  Negro. 
It  is  altogether  from  another  class  that  the  appre- 
hension of  social  equality  comes.  The  power  of 
endurance  and  the  muscularity  of  the  Negro,  his 
ability  and  promptness  to  meet  the  many-sided  de- 
mands made  on  him,  his  proverbial  tractableness  and 
responsiveness  have  served  him  as  a  bulwark  of  de- 
fense, while  conjoined  with  this  has  been  the  rein- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         105 

/ 

forcement  of  many  white  friends  who  know  his 
worth,  and  in  numerous  instances  have  intervened 
to  shield  him  from  violence.  The  fact  that  the 
Negro  holds  his  place  against  the  peoples  of  the 
world,  as  the  laborer  preferred  above  all  others  on 
the  lands  of  the  South,  establishes  his  worth  beyond 
question.  The  Negro  population  is  a  vast  mine  of 
wealth  which  needs  only  development  and  encour- 
agement to  make  it  profitable  beyond  calculation. 

Up  to  this  time  we  have  considered  the  Negro 
only  as  a  subordinate,  as  a  subsumed  manual  laborer. 
Now  let  us  go  a  step  further  and  consider  him  as 
an  independent  producer  of  wealth  in  the  direction 
and  management  of  his  own  affairs.  His  ability 
to  accumulate  so  much  wealth  under  so  many  dispir- 
iting conditions,  within  the  short  period  of  only 
forty-five  years,  illustrates  the  capability  of  the 
Negro,  and  his  intrinsic  worth  to  the  country.  If 
the  taxable  property  alone  of  the  Negro  population 
was  divided  equally  among  the  members  of  the  race, 
each  would  have  per  capita  fully  sixty  dollars.  This 
would  include  every  infant,  every  indigent  old  man 
and  woman,  every  criminal.  In  other  words,  the 
aggregate  valuation  of  the  taxable  property  of  the 
race  amounts  to  about  $600,000,000,  all  of  which 
has  been  acquired  within  less  than  fifty  years,  and 
that  under  contrary  conditions,  and  in  the  first  stage 
of  the  freedom  of  that  people.  Give  the  Negro 
forty-five  years  more  with  his  increasing  knowledge, 
hfs  aptness  to  acquire,  aspiration  to  improve  and 


io6         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

advance,  expanding  power,  and  developing  skill, 
remarkable  readiness  to  adjust  himself  to  condi- 
tions, and  who  can  foresee  what  his  contributions 
to  the  wealth  of  the  nation  will  be  within  the  next 
half  century? 

Above  many  things,  Americans  want  producers 
of  capital.  There  is  scarcely  an  American  town  or 
community  which  would  not  warmly  welcome  any 
man  who  is  a  producer  of  wealth.  The  wealth  of 
no  one  is  of  any  value  unless  it  is  distributed  in  the 
community  according  to  the  laws  which  control 
money  as  a  circulating  medium.  The  more  wealth 
one  creates,  the  more  does  he  bestow  on  the  com- 
munity, according  to  the  general  principles  of  trade. 
It  may  be  the  result  of  brawn  or  brain,  or  of  both — 
it  is  created  and  therefore  dispensed.  If  a  popula- 
tion as  unpromising  as  the  ex-slaves  of  the  South 
were,  in  the  outset,  can  accomplish  so  much  in  the 
very  teeth  of  fierce  competition,  what  may  these 
people  not  yield  to  the  country,  if  protected  and 
given  justice  and  security  in  the  full  exercise  of  un- 
hampered powers? 

As  a  laborer,  the  Negro  is  the  cheapest ;  as  a  citi- 
zen, he  is  the  most  frugal ;  as  a  business  man,  he  is 
economical ;  as  an  American,  he  spends  his  money  at 
home,  and  does  not  transmit  it  to  another  and  re- 
mote region,  as  do  many  others  who  have  sought 
residence  in  the  Union.  Maltreated  by  advantage 
taken  of  him  by  designing  men,  does  he  sulk  and 
repine?  Is  he  revengeful  and  threatening?  Every 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         107 

fair  man  knows  that  these  things  are  not  true  of 
him. 

But  the  story  of  the  Negro's  worth  is  yet  but  im- 
perfectly told.  To  show  the  utter  hollowness  of 
much  of  the  inconsiderate  and  flippant  denunciation 
of  the  Negro,  largely  because  it  is  a  fashion  thus  to 
indulge  in  cheap  twaddle,  it  is  known  as  a  well 
established  fact,  that  many  who  give  vent  to  senti- 
ments like  these,  do  so  often  while  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  services  of  colored  domestics  or  employes. 
There  is  the  unconscious  satisfaction  of  having  such 
service,  while  there  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  disposi- 
tion to  indulge  in  abuse.  An  apt  illustration  of  this 
was  met  with  in  a  Southern  home,  where  there  were 
several  children  who  were  entrusted  to  the  care  of 
a  Negro  nurse,  rather  an  elderly  woman,  though 
alert  and  active.  Her  control  of  this  group  in  the 
sitting  room  and  at  the  dining  table,  seemed  to  be 
absolute,  even  though  the  parents  were  present. 
This  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  condition  in  a 
Southern  home.  It  was  observed  that  her  manage- 
ment and  discipline  was  perfect,  as  was  shown  by 
an  occasional  "Ah !"  attended  by  the  pointing  of  the 
index  ringer  of  the  old  woman,  in  response  to  which 
the  urchin  would  stop  short  his  utterance  or  un- 
seemly conduct.  At  one  time,  when  the  servant 
disappeared  for  a  short  while,  the  father  found  no 
stronger  motive  of  appeal  to  one  of  the  little  boys 
than  to  say,  "Better  mind,  Mammy  will  get  you!" 
For  nine-tenths  of  the  time  these  children  were 


Io8          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

under  the  control  of  that  careful  nurse.  When  at 
last  the  old  woman  disappeared  with  her  group  of 
dependents,  the  father  remarked  to  the  interested 
guest  that  the  old  servant  had  been  with  them  for 
a  number  of  years,  and  that  she  was  regarded  as  an 
indispensable  adjunct  of  that  home,  and  that  he 
could  not  see  how  her  services  could  be  dispensed 
with.  The  care,  the  character,  and  largely  the  des- 
tiny of  those  children  were  lodged  in  the  hands  of 
that  old  black  mammy.  Yet  when  the  conversation 
turned  on  a  casual  discussion  of  the  Negro  question, 
the  language  seemed  inadequate  to  furnish  terms 
sufficiently  harsh  to  enable  him  to  express  his  an- 
tipathy to  the  race.  His  abuse  was  so  indiscrimi- 
nately wholesale  that  one  would  have  thought  the 
race  of  Negroes,  without  exception,  was  to  him  a 
favorite  aversion.  The  writer  happened  to  know 
that  neither  he  nor  his  immediate  ancestors  were 
ever  the  owners  of  slaves.  This  illustrates  the 
phase  of  spoken  expression  without  a  practical 
source  of  sentiment  so  prevalent  in  many  quarters 
of  the  South. 

But  to  proceed  further.  Notwithstanding  the 
common  abuse  to  which  the  Negro  is  subjected 
partly  from  habit,  as  has  been  shown,  and  partly 
because  of  racial  hostility,  the  fact  remains  that  he 
has  all  along  been  the  guardian  of  protection  to 
Southern  society.  He  is  usually  considered  and 
spoken  of  as  a  standing  menace  to  the  interests  of 
society,  and  as  endangering,  by  his  presence,  the 


[THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         109 

safety  of  our  institutions;  yet  the  fact  that  he  has 
been  our  chief  cordon  of  defense  needs  only  to  be 
stated  to  be  recognized. 

Suppose  the  millions  of  blacks  had  not  been  in  the 
South  during  several  decades  past,  occupying  the 
multitudinous  stations  of  usefulness  which  they  hold, 
whom  should  we  have  in  their  stead?  Millions  of 
the  scum  of  southern  Europe  or  of  the  Orient. 
With  inherited  vice,  moral  obliquity,  criminality, 
infidelity,  socialistic  and  anarchical  ideas,  we  should 
have  had  them  by  the  million  in  the  homes,  the 
places  of  business,  and  on  the  farms  of  the  South. 
Bad  as  so  many  claim,  often  without  reason,  our 
condition  to  be,  it  would  be  immeasurably  worse  but 
for  the  presence  of  the  Negro.  Having  him,  what 
have  we?  A  docile,  tractable,  unrevengeful  race,  a 
people  whom  we  know,  and  have  known  for  cen- 
turies ;  a  race  which  has  demonstrated  its  loyalty  to 
the  white  race  in  innumerable  ways ;  that  is  anxious 
to  remain  among  us,  and  from  abused  conditions 
raises  only  now  and  then  a  subdued  protest,  and 
oftener  than  otherwise  appeals  to  the  stronger  race ; 
which  in  the  weakness  of  its  numbers  as  compared 
with  those  of  the  stronger  race,  implores  protection 
from  the  commercial  aggrandizement,  official  -impo- 
sition and  abuse,  and  judicial  injustice,  from  which 
it  suffers;  a  people  ambitious  to  advance  to  wider 
spheres  of  usefulness  and  respectability ;  a  race  with- 
out infidels,  without  the  mafia  or  black-hand  organi- 
zations, without  disloyalty  to  the  flag  of  our  com- 


no          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

mon  country,  without  a  deeply-nourished  grudge, 
and  in  full  accord  with  the  genius  of  our  institutions. 

Place  the  one  element  of  population  over  against 
the  other,  and  what  choice  would  even  the  most 
hostile  enemy  of  the  Negro  race  make?  The  pres- 
ence of  the  faithful  Negro  has  kept  back  the  in- 
roads of  .a  most  undesirable  population  which  would 
have  brought  a  train  of  evils  and  vices,  debauchery 
and  demoralization,  and  crimes  nameless  and  with- 
out number.  A  servant  population  we  should  have 
had,  and  if  not  Negro,  what  other?  None  other 
would  have  been  available  than  that  already  named. 

Then,  is  the  Negro  of  any  value?  Has  he  ever 
been  of  use  and  worth?  Are  not  the  possibilities 
abundant  for  making  him  more  valuable  still  ?  The 
promotion  of  his  interest  as  an  industrial  asset  is 
the  promotion  of  that  of  the  community  and  state. 
With  only  partial  encouragement  he  builds  his  places 
of  business,  establishes  his  banks,  and  insurance  or- 
ganizations, the  progressive  ones  act  as  a  constant 
stimulus  to  the  others  in  the  lower  ranks,  animating 
to  thrift  and  habits  of  industry ;  he  writes  his  books, 
not  to  excite  passion  and  incendiarism  but  to  create 
respectability — publishes  his  newspapers,  only  to 
incite  to  self-respect  and  racial  advancement,  while 
those  on  the  higher  rounds  are  constant  in  their 
endeavor  to  raise  to  loftier  planes  others  struggling 
up  from  beneath.  The  Negro  purchases  land  and 
tills  it  with  profit  to  the  commonwealth,  establishes 
his  home,  his  school,  his  church,  and  with  each 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          in 

recurring  year  vindicates  his  claim  to  recognition 
because  of  his  solid  worth  in  contributing  to  the 
wealth  of  the  community  and  the  state.  Is  there 
nothing  in  the  face  of  the  facts,  which  are  matters 
of  every  day  observation  even  to  the  most  casual 
observer,  to  appeal  to  the  stronger  and  more  favored 
race,  if  not  for  the  sake  of  humanity,  if  not  in  the 
name  of  philanthropy,  if  not  in  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  purely  because  of  his  financial  value — 
is  there  not  sufficient  in  all  this  to  call  for  a  revision 
of  much  prevailing  misconception  and  a  reversal  of 
so  much  ill-nature  against  the  Negro  ?  Is  there  not 
enough  to  appeal  to  every  thoughtful  man  and 
woman  among  us  to  lend  to  the  black  man  friendly 
help  and  support  in  his  faithful  endeavors  ? 

In  the  preceding  part  of  this  chapter  attention  was 
called  to  certain  facts,  which  are  such  as  address 
themselves  to  us  every  day. 

"To  all  facts  there  are  laws, 
The  effect  has  its  cause,  and  I  mount  to  the  cause." 

Some  things  may  be  answered — facts  cannot. 
The  principles  presented  appeal  to  cool  reason,  not 
to  passion.  Now  in  spite  of  all  these  things  there 
is  a  peculiar  prejudicial  disposition,  sometimes  even 
among  the  more  thoughtful,  to  disparage  and  dis- 
count the  worthiest  efforts  of  the  Negro.  Begin- 
ning in  the  dawn  of  the  Negro's  freedom,  some  of 
the  animadversions  on  the  Negro  have  become  tra- 
ditional. The  prediction  was  current  and  copious 
in  the  outset  of  his  liberty,  that  when  the  support- 


ii2         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing  arm  of  the  white  man  was  withdrawn,  and  the 
Negro  was  left  unpropped,  he  would  return  to  his 
original  paganism.  However,  the  Negro  preferred 
the  opposite  course.  Slowly  but  with  certainty,  he 
began  the  ascent  to  a  better  and  thriftier  life.  A 
leadership  of  worth  emerged  from  his  ranks,  and 
by  its  wisdom  and  guidance  astonished  the  world. 
What  then?  The  prophecy  failing,  the  predicters 
insisted  that  these  were  only  sporadic  exceptions 
such  as  we  might  find  even  among  quadrupeds  giv- 
ing abnormal  and  unusual  expressions  of  superior- 
ity. But  instances  of  actual  worth  continued  to 
multiply,  and  the  prominent  became  more  prominent 
still.  The  exception  was  fast  resolving  itself  into 
the  rule.  Not  the  fulfilled  prophecy,  but  the  oppo- 
site had  come  to  pass. 

Then  what?  An  accommodated  twist  was  given 
to  the  protest  at  first  raised  against  the  Negro.  De- 
clining to  return  to  the  darkness  of  paganism,  and 
preferring  rather  to  grope  his  way  to  the  light  of 
the  advantages  afforded  by  civilized  life  in  the  midst 
of  which  he  had  been  reared,  and  of  which  he  was 
previously  only  a  spectator,  he  brought  himself  con- 
spicuously into  the  gaze  of  the  world.  The  next  stage 
of  disparagement  to  which  the  unfriendly  betook 
themselves  was  the  institution  of  the  comparative 
merits  between  the  intellectual  caliber  of  the  two 
races.  This  was  an  unconscious  compliment  to  the 
Negro,  of  whom  it  had  been  predicted  only  a  few 
years  before  that  he  would  lapse  into  the  darkness  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         113 

his  jungle  ancestry.  Nor  did  the  comparison  stop 
there.  The  Negro  was  disparaged  because  he  did 
not  attain  unto  the  standard  of  life  and  of  progress 
which  had  been  reached  by  his  Anglo-Saxon  neigh- 
bor. Because  he  had  not  at  a  single  bound  leaped 
the  distance  made  by  the  whites  after  centuries  of 
struggle  and  progress,  he  must  be  made  a  man  of 
small  worth.  But  there  is  an  immense  difference 
between  a  few  decades,  and  many  centuries. 

To  this  the  answer  is  sometimes  made  that  the 
black  man  had  only  to  enter  on  the  inheritance  of  the 
civilization  built  by  the  white  race.  But  this  is  a 
clear  evasion  of  the  issue.  The  question  of  advan- 
tage is  not  the  point  at  issue,  but  that  of  the  capa- 
bility of  the  Negro  race  to  grasp  and  appropriate 
civilized  advantages,  no  matter  whence  they  came. 
It  is  as  equally  true  that  the  present  generation  of 
whites  inherit  the  advantages  of  all  the  past,  as 
that  any  other  people  does.  The  question  is,  Is  the 
Negro  capable  of  applying  the  privileges  of  our  civi- 
lization in  such  a  way  as  to  be  a  promoter  of  pros- 
perity, and  if  so,  is  he  not  worthy  of  at  least  an  op- 
portunity to  demonstrate  his  full  worth  by  the  re- 
moval of  the  difficulties  which  dispute  his  progress 
and  hinder  his  development? 

We  have  seen  how  far  short  certain  predictions 
concerning  the  Negro  have  fallen.  We  have  ob- 
served his  astonishing  ascent  to  a  station  in  civiliza- 
tion of  which  he  was  not  at  first  thought  to  be  capa- 
ble. Since  he  has  accomplished  so  much  in  so 


ii4          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

incredibly  short  time,  it  is  a  question  what  the  Negro 
may  be  able  to  do  in  the  years  of  the  immediate 
future. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  the  dazzling 
accomplishments  of  the  white  race  of  modern  times 
have  been  achieved  within  the  last  century.  For 
eighteen  hundred  years  the  results  of  Anglo-Saxon 
civilization  were  comparatively  primitive  and  bung- 
ling. All  the  centuries  preceding  that  of  the  nine- 
teenth were  those  of  preparation,  accumulation, 
formation,  and  assimilation. 

As  late  as  1809  no  steam  propeller  had  ever 
plowed  the  waters  of  the  globe;  victories  on  battle 
fields  had  been  won  by  flintlock  muskets;  in  Great 
Britain,  at  that  time,  it  cost  fourteen  pence,  an  equiv- 
alent of  twenty-eight  cents,  to  send  a  letter  three 
hundred  miles,  and  in  the  United  States  seventeen 
cents  for  the  same  service;  there  was  not  then  a 
single  iron-barred  tramway  on  the  globe,  nor  was 
there  a  known  plow  with  iron  or  steel  mold  board; 
then  the  harvesters  in  every  land  of  the  world  cut 
their  grain  with  the  primitive  sickle ;  the  most  rapid 
transit  on  earth  or  sea  was  the  sailing  vessel  pro- 
pelled by  the  winds;  the  industrial  genius  of  man 
was  shown  only  in  local  enterprises  and  in  articles  of 
curious  handiwork;  the  packhorse  and  clumsy 
stage-coach  did  the  work  of  transportation  on  land ; 
the  science  of  geology  was  then  unknown,  and 
human  knowledge  of  the  solar  system  was  limited 
to  the  orbit  of  Uranus;  but  little  was  known  of  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          115 

constitution  of  the  earth  and  of  the  atmosphere 
which  envelopes  our  globe;  the  greatest  telescope 
in  existence  was  the  twenty-foot  reflector  of  Her- 
schel,  and  both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
at  that  period  fostered  and  defended  human  slavery. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  the  year  1809  there 
were  born  into  the  world  a  group  of  notable  men 
who  have  mightily  shaped  the  destiny  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race — Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Edgar  Allan 
Poe,  Felix  Mendelssohn,  Charles  Robert  Darwin, 
Alfred  Tennyson,  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  and 
Abraham  Lincoln.  These  men,  and  others  like 
them,  the  product  of  the  centuries  which  had  gone 
before,  grasping  the  advantages  within  reach,  and 
following  divergent  lines,  lifted  the  race  till,  with 
its  improvements,  it  came  within  the  reach  of  an- 
other generation,  and  that  another,  all  of  which  has 
packed  within  the  compass  of  a  single  century  the 
mightiest  achievements  known  to  time. 

During  all  these  preceding  ages  the  latent  possi- 
bilities which  have  fruited  into  realities  were  un- 
dreamed of.  But  their  consummation  was  due  to 
unfettered  thought,  and  nothing  stood  in  the  way 
save  the  grim  barriers  of  Nature.  What  hidden 
possibilities  may  exist  in  a  race  such  as  that  of  the 
Afro-American,  possibilities  of  quite  a  different 
order,  it  may  be,  from  those  enumerated,  but  still 
great,  if  unhindered  in  the  exercise  of  opportunity, 
no  one  can  foretell,  any  more  than  forty-five  years 
ago  the  success  of  the  race  attained  by  this  time 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

could  have  been  foretold.  That  which  has  been 
done  by  the  Negro  is  frankly  acknowledged  to  be 
astounding,  especially  when  we  recall  the  unfavor- 
able conditions  which  have  been  suspended  at  every 
step  over  his  head. 

At  any  rate,  the  Negro  being  a  man,  we  dare  not 
seek  to  make  less  of  him,  and  if  we  venture  to  do  so, 
no  matter  under  what  pretext,  we  fly  into  the  face 
of  Providence.  Since  his  foot  first  touched  Amer- 
ican soil,  the  Negro's  yearning  has  been  Godward. 
He  has  his  faults,  his  vices,  his  crimes,  and  in  these 
respects  he  shares  with  all  other  races ;  but  he  is  the 
most  religious  of  the  races  of  men.  So  far  from 
returning  to  the  fetishism  of  his  ancestors  on  the 
Dark  Continent,  his  general  disposition  has  been 
heavenward,  and  his  loyalty  to  his  religion  has  itself 
been  a  mighty  asset  to  our  prosperity.  He  may 
have  his  superstition,  but  it  is  of  a  harmless  sort, 
and  has  not  attained  to  that  rank  of  horrid  tragedies 
which  has  involved  the  murder  of  hundreds  of  inno- 
cent people  against  whom  there  was  no  charge  laid, 
save  that  of  a  superstitious  notion  that  they  were 
witches ! 

We  return  to  the  original  question,  Is  the  Negro 
of  any  value  to  our  civilization  ?  What  verdict  shall 
we  render  in  the  face  of  the  facts  just  presented  ?  If 
he  be  of  value,  are  we  the  people  to  decry  and  dis- 
courage the  struggling  race,  born  and  reared  on 
American  soil  and  loyal  to  all  to  which  the  more 
favored  race  is  loyal,  and  in  full  attune  with  the 


advancement  of  the  times,  and  faithful  even  in  dis- 
couragement to  the  whites  ?  Is  it  the  spirit  of  chiv- 
alry, of  wisdom,  and  of  practical  judgment  thus  to 
do,  seeing  the  immense  value  of  the  colored  race  to 
our  civilization  ?  Must  we  countenance  and  support 
divers  attempts  to  'undervalue  and  depreciate  the 
commendable  feats  of  that  lesser  and  unfortunate 
race?  If  within  the  span  of  a  few  years  that  people 
have  accomplished  so  much,  what  immense  value 
will  they  not  prove  within  the  next  half-century? 
If  in  all  departments  of  industry  and  thrift  we  aim 
at  improvement,  why  should  we  not  animate  a  race 
of  ten  million  people,  the  strides  of  whom  within 
forty-five  years  have  been  phenomenal?  Improve- 
ment of  vegetable  and  fruit  products  is  sought  with 
commendable  assiduity  year  by  year.  The  sciences 
are  invoked  to  aid  in  the  propagation  of  improved 
species  alike  in  the  vegetable  and -animal  kingdoms, 
and  in  the  production  of  immaterial  agencies  to 
benefit  humanity.  Lives  of  men  and  of  women,  too, 
are  being  devoted  with  a  beautiful  consecration  to 
the  development  of  various  species  of  flower,  fruit, 
and  four-footed  beasts.  Why  not  devote  some  such 
attention  to  the  elevation  of  a  race  which  in  spite 
of  verbal  denial  to  the  contrary,  insists  on  producing 
concrete  illustrations  of  its  mighty  capabilities  for 
good?  Why  not  at  least  clear  the  way,  and  give 
that  people  a  chance? 

We  are  often  met  by  the  prejudicial  proposal  to 
keep  the  Negro  in  his  place.     There  can  be  no  ob- 


ii8          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

jection  to  this,  provided  we  first  give  him  a  place  to 
stay  in.  But  to  hinder,  restrict,  hedge,  hamper, 
scorn,  abuse,  ridicule,  and  denounce  should  not,  in 
all  conscience,  represent  our  relation  to  the  race. 

The  questions  herein  discussed  are  those  which 
appeal  to  clear  and  cool  reason,  and  are  not  unwor- 
thy of  the  most  studious  consideration  of  even  the 
highest  and  the  best  among  us.  Advantageous 
rootage  will  yield  abundant  fruitage. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

A   FORCE  OF   CONSERVATION. 

It  seems  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  writers 
on  the  subject  of  the  Negro  that  that  which  is  re- 
garded as  his  weakest  point  of  character  is  really 
his  strongest,  and  one  that  has  stood  him  in  hand 
in  the  dire  difficulties  to  which  he  has  been  subjected 
since  his  emancipation.  The  dominant  character- 
istic of  the  Negro  is  that  of  submission,  of  tract- 
ableness.  Nothing  short  of  this  possession  could 
have  saved  the  race  from  dissolution.  Yet  this  trait 
has  been  often  urged  against  the  Negro  as  an  indi- 
cation of  his  weakness.  In  this  event,  his  weakness 
is  his  strength.  The  stronger  race  has  often  taken 
advantage  of  this  element  of  weakness,  and  in  con- 
sequence, the  Negro  has  been  the  sufferer,  but  he 
would  have  been  a  greater  sufferer  had  he  not  pos- 
sessed it.  His  refuge  of  protection  in  many  an 
ordeal  has  been  his  quiet  submissiveness  to  wrong, 
and  then  making  the  most  of  that  which  was  left. 
Had  the  Negro  been  as  aggressive  as  the  white 
man,  he  would  have  been  pulverized.  He  has  met 
the  repeated  shocks  of  racial  revolution  with  a  resil- 
iency that  has  saved  his  race  from  utter  dissolution. 
This  passive  virtue  has  been  his  greatest  means  of 
conservation. 

119 


120         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

In  this  respect  the  Negro  race  has  not  been  alto- 
gether unlike  that  of  the  Hebrew.  This  last-named 
race  has  been  hounded  through  the  centuries,  with- 
out a  land,  without  a  language,  and  without  laws, 
and  yet  has  survived  the  shocks,  revolutions  and 
persecutions  of  the  ages,  and  emerges  into  promi- 
nence with  representative  leaders  in  commerce,  in 
politics,  and  in  war,  the  greatest  race  the  world  has 
ever  known.  The  American  Negro  is  a  new  race 
which  has  been  touched  by  the  vitality  of  modern 
civilization,  and  is  destined  to  play  an  important 
part  in  the  history  of  the  future  in  the  states  of 
America. 

For  centuries,  Africa  was  the  slave  market  of  the 
world.  The  easy  subserviency  of  the  Negro  to- 
gether, with  his  muscularity  and  his  power  of  endur- 
ance in  hot  climates,  has  been  the  occasion  of  his 
dissipation  through  the  heated  regions  of  the  globe, 
but  the  flexibility  of  our  republican  institutions  is 
aptly  suited  to  the  pliable  character  of  the  Negro, 
and  it  is  here  that  he  is  coming  to  his  own.  Tend- 
encies are  always  prophetic,  and  the  indications  are 
that  the  refluent  influence  of  the  American  Negro 
will  eventually  prove  the  redemption  of  his  dark 
fatherland.  Into  the  realm  of  prediction,  however, 
we  need  not  now  go. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  for  any  other  race  to 
have  undergone  that  to  which  the  Negro  race  has 
been  subjected,  without  serious  detriment,  and  yet 
the  Negro  has  not  only  survived  but  has  continued 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         121 

to  thrive.  With  the  patience  of  the  ox  he  submitted 
to  the  hard  and  exacting  demands  of  protracted 
bondage,  and  out  of  this  passive  disposition  came 
the  cheerfulness  which  lent  song  and  melody  to  his 
labor  on  the  hot  plantations  of  the  South,  and  made 
his  gloomy  quarters  vibrant  with  joy  at  night  when 
his  heavy  tasks  of  the  day  were  done.  Instead  of 
the  gloom  and  moroseness  of  almost  any  other  peo- 
ple, the  Negro  injected  a  cheerful  minstrelsy  into 
his  gloom,  and  drove  dull  care  away.  It  is  the  testi- 
mony of  travelers  in  Africa  that  the  slaves  of  the 
Dark  Continent  accompany  their  tasks  with  song, 
just  as  do  the  Negroes  in  America.  Gloomy  and 
despairing  indeed  must  be  the  condition  of  the 
Negro  if  he  fails  to  give  vent  to  melody.  The 
gloomy  cell  so  often  his  portion,  the  chain-gang  on 
the  street,  the  penal  servitude  on  the  plantation  or 
in  the  penitentiary,  stifle  not  his  melody.  He  pines 
not  over  misfortune,  as  do  other  men,  he  broods  not 
over  calamity,  he  is  not  burdened  with  foreboding 
care  as  are  others,  he  chafes  not  under  smarting 
wrong,  he  cherishes  no  deeply-nourished  grudge,  but 
passively  accepts  the  situation  and  is  content  to  make 
the  most  of  it,  whatever  it  may  be.  By  this  means 
his  strength  is  husbanded  and  when  the  opportunity 
is  his,  he  is  ready  to  seize  it  and  press  it  on  to  his 
advantage. 

Out  of  this  disposition  as  a  slave  grew  his  devo- 
tion to  his  master.  The  severest  punishment  did 
not  alienate  his  affection,  and  his  subsequent  jocu- 


122          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

larity  would  often  disarm  his  owner  of  an  ill- 
natured  disposition  toward  him.  To  this  same 
passive  quality  in  the  character  of  the  Negro  was 
the  Southern  Confederacy  due  for  the  success  of  its 
arms  on  the  field.  With  no  other  race  of  men 
would  this  have  proved  true.  But  the  Negro  sub- 
mitted against  his  well-known  advantage,  and  it 
inured  in  several  ways  to  his  subsequent  benefit. 
He  did  not  accept  freedom  till  it  was  literally  thrust 
on  him. 

The  period  of  his  greatest  disaster  was  when  he 
was  shunted  off  his  accustomed  plane  of  disposition 
and  course  of  conduct,  and  was  bewitched  by  un- 
scrupulous whites  into  the  political  scrambles  of  the 
notorious  reconstruction  period.  That  which  he 
then  did  was  not  really  himself,  but  the  schemes  and 
designs  of  men  of  infamous  purpose  speaking 
through  him  as  a  subservient  mouthpiece.  Here 
the  Negro  was  quite  out  of  his  element  in  an  en- 
forced aggression  for  which  the  dive  and  dramshop 
were  largely  responsible,  and  under  the  deception 
by  which  he  was  moved,  he  became  the  chief  sufferer 
and  the  permanent  burden-bearer  of  the  ills  of  an 
infamous  era. 

But  what  of  the  efficacy  of  that  passive  quality  of 
character  since  he  has  been  subjected  to  dependence 
on  his  own  resources?  Has  it  stood  him  in  hand 
during  these  years  of  sore  trial  since  he  has  had  to 
lean  alone  on  himself?  The  Negro  has  never  un- 
dertaken anything  worthy  without  encountering 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         123 

difficulty  and  disadvantage.  At  every  step  of  his 
progress  his  way  has  been  disputed  by  obstructions 
of  divers  sorts.  Many  advantages  have  been  denied 
him  by  his  opponents.  He  has  suffered  not  a  little 
from  a  dominant  and  masterful  prejudice.  Pre- 
texts and  petty  offenses  have  served  as  much  to 
crowd  our  jails  and  penitentiaries  as  has  genuine 
justice.  Infliction  on  infliction  has  been  borne  with 
passive  docility,  and  each  recurring  event  has  been 
suffered  to  pass  into  forgetfulness  without  opposi- 
tion. Every  possible  advantage  has  been  taken  of 
the  Negro  in  commercial  transactions,  of  all  of 
which  he  was  duly  aware,  but  he  has  quietly  sub- 
mitted and  gone  on  his  way.  That  passive  disposi- 
tion, docility  of  spirit,  resiliency  and  adjustability 
of  character  have  served  as  his  shield  of  protec- 
tion. Suppose  he  had  been  truculent  and  aggres- 
sive, he  would  have  gone  the  way  of  the  Indian — 
would  have  gradually  disappeared  from  among  men, 
at  least  in  the  states  of  America.  Unpossessed  of 
those  strident  qualities  and  burly  passions  which  so 
often  sway  men  in  seasons  of  wrong,  and  which 
wear  away  efficiency  and  unpoise  disposition,  the 
Negro  has,  after  each  misfortune,  taken  up  his  march 
afresh  with  an  alacrity  of  spirit  that  has  been  the 
astonishment  of  many. 

Not  that  the  Negro  is  lacking  in  assertion  and 
persistency,  but  is  of  the  quiescent  cast.  His  cool- 
ness, cheerfulness,  pliancy  of  disposition,  and  readi- 
ness of  adjustment  have  prevailed  where  the  more 


124          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

robust  qualities  would  have  failed.  This  quality  of 
submissiveness  on  the  part  of  the  Negro  has  done 
more  than  he  is  aware  of,  in  its  appeal  to  the  chival- 
ric  type  of  white  manhood.  It  has,  not  in  a  few 
instances,  stirred  into  sympathy  the  depths  of  his 
white  neighbors  when  resistance  on  his  part  would 
have  failed,  and  aroused  opposition.  There  is  much 
of  that  in  the  genuine  Anglo-Saxon  which,  to  use 
the  parlance  of  the  street,  is  "for  the  under-dog  in 
the  fight."  The  weak  and  oppressed,  the  defense- 
less and  dependent  have  never  failed  to  appeal  to  the 
really  chivalric  white  man.  This  was  the  very  ge- 
nius of  the  age  of  chivalry.  In  more  instances  than 
the  Negro  is  aware,  heroic  whites  have  stood  be- 
tween him  and  contemplated  violence,  simply  be- 
cause he  was  what  he  was  as  a  defenseless  and  sub- 
missive being.  His  friends  among  the  whites  are 
the  more  numerous  because  of  his  possession  of  this 
quality. 

While  possessed  of  this  docile  spirit,  the  Negro, 
in  his  higher  types  is  not  wanting  in  pluck  to  grap- 
ple with  difficulty,  however  forbidding,  and  by 
means  of  a  combination  of  qualities  so  rare,  he  has 
largely  succeeded.  Back  of  much  of  his  success 
has  been  the  silent  reinforcement  of  the  better  ele- 
ment of  the  whites.  It  may  seem  a  roundabout 
means  of  success,  one  of  indirection,  and  cer- 
tainly it  is  unusual,  but  by  means  of  this  quality  the 
Negro  has,  in  large  measure,  succeeded,  and  is  des- 
tined yet  more  to  succeed.  Had  the  Negro  been 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         135 

rebellious  and  assertive  in  the  hour  of  his  emancipa- 
tion, he  would  never  have  succeeded  in  his  subse- 
quent course.  His  quiescent  mood  of  temperament 
which  so  many  have  been  swift  to  attribute  to  weak- 
ness, is  the  source  of  the  Negro's  strength,  and  will 
doubtless  prove  more  a  prevailing  quality  in  the 
future  than  it  has  in  the  past. 

While  the  Negro  is  timid  and  docile,  it  must  not 
be  presumed  that  he  is  lacking  in  a  substratum  of 
courage  when  occasion  demands.  It  is  an  error  to 
presume  that  the  Negro  is  in  the  general  acceptation 
of  the  term,  a  natural  coward.  Under  conditions  he 
will  resist  with  desperate  courage.  Wherever  his 
courage  has  been  tested  on  the  field  of  battle,  he 
has  proved  himself  an  excellent  soldier.  It  was  a 
Federal  commander  who  dispatched  to  Washington 
during  the  Civil  War,  concerning  the  Negro  sol- 
diers, "The  colored  troops  fought  nobly."  The  gal- 
lant charge  of  the  Tenth  Cavalry,  a  Negro  troop,  at 
San  Juan  Hill,  is  one  of  the  events  of  the  Spanish- 
American  war. 

But  his  staying  quality  is  his  subdued  tempera- 
ment. For  his  success,  and  it  has  been  unique,  he 
is  more  indebted  to  his  docility  of  spirit  than  to  any 
other  cause.  In  a  number  of  instances  conditions 
have  arisen  which  might  have  precipitated  passion, 
but  it  has  been  held  in  abeyance  till  the  storm  has 
passed,  and  the  Negro  has  quietly  pursued  his  even 
way  thenceforth.  He  has  met  misfortune  without 
resistance,  and  yet  with  a  strange,  firm  purpose 


126         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

which  sprang  from  the  soil  of  his  characteristic  pas- 
siveness,  he  has  finally  prevailed  where  often  success 
was  not  at  all  probable.  Quietly  dropping  into  the 
current  which  was  bearing  the  stronger  race  on  to 
success,  and  drifting,  not  aimlessly,  but  with  a  spirit 
unperturbed,  he  was  the  more  alive  to  the  opportuni- 
ties which  came  his  way,  and  on  these,  as  on  buoys, 
he  has  borne  himself  toward  a  destiny  which  grows 
more  luminous  with  his  steady  advancement. 

The  varied  ordeals  through  which  the  Negro  has 
been  compelled  to  pass  since  the  coming  of  his  free- 
dom, have  served  to  evoke  this  latent  quality  of  his 
character  as  the  humdrum  of  slavery  could  not.  In 
slavery  he  was  compressed  within  narrow  bounds, 
with  no  will  of  his  own,  and  without  personal  choice 
in  the  direction  of  his  course;  but  as  has  been  al- 
ready remarked,  this  element,  even  then,  was  not 
without  avail.  If  it  be  accounted  a  weakness,  how 
happens  it  that  the  Negro  has  so  marvelously  suc- 
ceeded in  so  many  spheres?  Weakness  is  not  an 
element  of  success.  The  truth  of  this  paradoxical 
condition  is  found  in  the  fact  that  beneath  this  ap- 
parent weakness  there  is  a  hidden  means  of  strength. 
It  is  the  preservation  of  an  equanimity  that  seems 
characteristic  of  the  Negro  race.  Because  of  his 
rare  combination  of  qualities,  the  Negro  has  been 
called,  by  some,  an  inscrutable  being.  This  in- 
scrutableness  resides  in  the  fact  that  he  is  capable 
of  wringing  success  at  the  most  unconjectured  quar- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          127 

ters,  and  at  points  where  there  was  every  indication 
of  failure. 

Left  to  himself,  the  Negro  raises  no  tumults;  in- 
cites no  strikes ;  and  when  smitten,  smites  not  again ; 
when  persecuted,  bows  to  it  in  meekness;  when 
wronged,  seeks  no  malicious  revenge,  but  peaceably 
goes  his  way  and  placidly  dismisses  it  from  his  mind. 
Where  others  would  resist,  he  tamely  submits,  and 
where  others  would  cherish  malice  and  hatred,  he 
returns  a  quiet  good  humor. 

Eliciting,  as  this  does,  the  impulse  of  the  old-time 
chivalry  of  the  South,  the  Negro  will  find  that  in 
proportion  as  he  establishes  his  genuine  worth  in  his 
effort  to  improve,  public  opinion  in  his  behalf  will 
increase  on  the  higher  levels  of  the  stronger  race. 
This  will  serve  to  give  him  increased  nerve,  and  fit 
him  more  to  draw  upward  the  lower  elements  of  his 
race.  The  destiny  of  the  Negro  is  within  his  own 
keeping.  In  proportion  to  his  worth  will  it  be  rec- 
ognized and  appreciated.  As  time  goes  on,  the  duty 
of  the  family  circle,  the  pulpit,  and  the  school  will 
become  more  pronounced,  not  only  in  holding  that 
already  gained,  but  in  pressing  with  eager  ambition 
and  wisdom  for  a  higher  footing  for  the  masses  of 
the  Negro  race.  Vagrancy  must  not  only  be  dis- 
countenanced, but  steadily  overcome,  and  lawless- 
ness, in  all  its  forms,  denounced.  Each  one  gained 
to  the  higher  round  of  progress  and  thrift,  must 


is8          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

become  an  evangel  to  win  yet  others.  This  seems 
to  be  the  propelling  spirit  now  animating  the  active 
moral  forces  of  the  race.  Notwithstanding  the  dis- 
orders on  the  lower  levels,  and  they  are  destined  yet 
to  continue,  at  least  for  a  season,  the  race  is  on  the 
onward  march.  It  is  making  vaster  opportunities 
for  itself  each  year.  Much  has  been  most  creditably 
done  within  the  space  of  a  few  years,  but  much  more 
remains  to  be  done.  One  thing  at  least  has  been  es- 
tablished by  the  leaders  of  the  race,  and  that  is  the 
proof  that  the  Negro  has  capabilities  which  years 
ago  he  was  not  supposed  to  possess.  His  route  to 
success  has  been  an  anomalous  one,  but,  in  the  end, 
it  is  genuine  success. 

So  long  as  the  race  remained  prostrate  and  help- 
less, it  was  regarded  as  a  menace  to  the  South,  but 
this  bugaboo  is  rapidly  disappearing,  as  the  Negro 
becomes  identified  with  the  interests  of  a  common 
country,  and  is  a  contributor  to  its  usefulness  and  its 
wealth.  That  which  has  been  done  by  some,  can 
be  done  by  many.  Those  who  have  succeeded  show 
the  possibility  of  success  to  others.  Pioneers  are 
prophets.  Forerunners  are  necessary  in  all  great 
movements  and  undertakings.  But  leaders  are, 
after  all,  only  leaders.  They  point  the  way,  indi- 
cate the  direction  to  be  followed,  and  press  toward 
the  heights,  but  if  they  are  to  advance,  or  even  hold 
their  own,  they  must  be  consistently  reinforced. 
That  there  is  a  slow  but  assuring  racial  reaction  in 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          129 

process  in  the  South  seems  clear.  The  growing 
worthiness  of  the  Negro,  his  outreach  of  enterprise, 
his  interest  in  current  affairs,  so  far  as  he  is  per- 
mitted to  share  in  them,  and  above  all,  his  placid 
temperament  are  serving  to  bring  him  into  closer 
touch  with  the  stronger  race.  The  movements  of 
the  Negro  are  closely  watched,  not  so  much  with  a 
critical  spirit,  as  with  one  of  interest  and  concern, 
and  his  worthy  deeds  make  a  profound  impression. 
There  never  was  a  happier  conception  for  the  race 
than  that  of  the  organization  of  the  National  Negro 
Business  League,  which  meets  annually  in  some  por- 
tion of  the  country.  It  focuses  and  summarizes 
the  achievements  of  the  Negro,  calls  attention  to  his 
expanding  usefulness,  and  is  conducted  with  •  so 
much  saneness  and  remarkable  judgment,  that  it  is 
winning  annually  increasing  attention. 

There  can  be  no  denial  of  the  fact  that  where  a 
Negro  has  made  himself  at  all  conspicuous,  no  mat- 
ter in  what  community  in  the  South,  he  is  esteemed 
by  all  whose  esteem  is  of  any  worth.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  he  shows  himself  worthy  as  an  American, 
a  citizen,  a  civilizer,  and  an  upright  man  of  affairs, 
he  will  receive  cordiality  of  welcome  at  the  hands 
of  the  stronger  race.  Can  he  ask  for  more?  In 
truth,  this  demand  will  act  more  and  more  for  the 
elevation  of  the  race.  If  a  standard  is  erected  to 
which  he  can  even  measurably  bring  himself,  he  is 
the  beneficiary  far  more  than  the  white  man. 


130         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

The  outlook  is,  then,  one  of  inspiration  for  the 
Negro  race.  There  are  yet  obstructions  many,  and 
certain  species  of  injustice  to  be  corrected,  but  time 
will  take  care  of  these,  and  the  calm  poise  of  the  race 
is  doing  more  to  effect  this  than  any  other  agency. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NEGRO  WOMANHOOD. 

A  race  or  nation  is  just  as  good  as  its  women — 
no  better.  Whether  on  the  highest  plane  to  which 
a  people  may  have  attained  in  the  scale  of  excellence, 
or  the  lowest  to  which  one  may  be  depressed,  the 
principle  admits  of  equal  application.  In  every  age, 
under  all  conditions,  the  fact  remains — woman  is 
the  arbiter  of  the  destiny  of  a  people. 

For  the  reason  of  this  we  do  not  have  far  to  go 
to  ascertain.  Woman  is  the  embodied  home,  and 
the  home  is  the  basis  of  all  institutions,  the  buttress 
of  society.  The  primal  form  of  government,  the 
home,  holds  its  regnant  place  in  the  society  of  the 
world.  It  is  the  fountain  source  of  power  and  in- 
fluence, of  character  and  sentiment,  and  has  lent  a 
dominant  color  to  every  great  historic  event,  every 
movement  that  has  upheaved  in  the  revolutions  of 
time.  The  mother  and  wife  are  the  vital  source  of 
power  in  the  home.  That  accumulated  and  mysteri- 
ous influence  is  the  leaven  which  has  lifted  and  ex- 
panded, or  the  element  which  has  contracted  and 
shriveled,  in  proportion  to  the  character  of  woman. 
The  lesson  of  the  position  providentially  assigned  to 
the  sex  has  never  been  lost  to  the  world. 


132          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

No  less  applicable  is  the  principle  to  the  Negro 
race  in  the  phenomenal  transition  through  which  it 
has  been  passing  since  the  freedom  of  '65.  Of  the 
unfortunate  effects  on  the  condition  of  the  race  of 
Negroes  in  the  uncontrolled  animalism  of  the  men 
of  the  dominant  race,  we  of  the  South  know  per- 
fectly well.  To  the  slave,  the  white  man  was  the 
highest  ideal,  and  the  conduct  of  thousands  of  them 
had  a  most  untoward  effect  on  the  character  of 
Negro  womanhood.  The  trespass  of  the  stronger  on 
the  weaker,  the  advantage  taken  of  the  relations 
between  the  owner  and  the  slave,  as  well  as  that  of 
other  representatives  of  the  controlling  race,  the 
levelling  of  differences  by  clandestine  conduct,  which 
has  not  ceased  with  the  years  subsequent  to  eman- 
cipation, have  left,  and  still  leave,  an  influence  for 
evil  in  the  minds  of  the  colored  women.  If  they 
shared  in  the  fault  by  reason  of  the  weakness  oc- 
casioned first  by  the  laxness  of  original  savagery, 
and  as  a  result  of  the  examples  of  slave  life,  what 
shall  be  said  of  the  white  man  with  ages  of  culti- 
vated restraint  behind  him  ?  It  is  just  this  condition 
which  excites  the  apprehension,  so  often  voiced  in 
half-suppressed  utterance,  of  race  amalgamation. 
The  interdiction  of  intermarriage  between  the  two 
races  in  the  states  in  which  the  Negroes  are  massed, 
serves  as  a  ban  and  barrier,  so  far  as  legal  statute 
is  concerned,  and  raises  an  insurmountable  parti- 
tion between  the  races.  This  meets  alike  the  appro- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         133 

bation  of  both  races,  but  does  not  serve  as  a  check 
to  the  vice  on  the  lower  levels  of  life. 

The  hope  of  the  Negro  as  a  people  lies  in  the 
growing  aspiration  of  his  leaders  to  preserve  intact 
the  integrity  of  the  race.  Nor  is  this  the  least  among 
the  difficult  tasks  of  the  race,  which  in  their  aggre- 
gate are  manifold.  In  this  endeavor  these  leaders 
encounter  a  vice  which  is  rooted  deep  into  the  ages, 
the  growth  of  which  was  not  retarded  under  the 
regime  of  slavery.  They  must  needs  teach  the  al- 
phabet of  chastity  under  discouraging  conditions.  In 
the  delicate  assumption  they  must  necessarily  reach 
the  wills,  the  consciences,  and  the  loyal  race-  pride 
of  their  young  womanhood.  The  initial  sources  of 
influence  on  which  they  must  rely  must  be  the  home, 
the  church,  the  school.  Rigid  safeguards  must  be 
placed  above  the  persons  of  their  growing  woman- 
hood. Chaste  womanhood  for  the  Negro,  as  well 
as  for  every  other  race,  is  indispensable  if  the  race, 
as  such,  is  to  be  preserved.  Virtue  must  be  the 
angel  with  flaming  sword,  guarding  first  of  all  the 
portals  of  the  home.  More  than  anything  else,  yea, 
more  than  all  things  else  combined,  must  be  the 
moral  strength  of  Negro  womanhood.  This  is  the 
one  indispensable  first  stone  laid  in  the  foundation 
of  race  integrity,  and  no  less  the  cement  and  the  final 
capstone  of  the  whole.  The  protection  of  the  wom- 
anliness of  woman  in  the  Negro  race  is  the  bulwark 
of  Negro  race  integrity. 


134         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

If  there  were  nothing  else  now  before  the  race — if 
all  other  questions  were  already  settled  concerning 
the  biracial  difficulty  in  the  South,  industrial,  social, 
political,  educational — and  all  of  these  are  far  from 
reduction  to  an  undisturbed  basis — and  this  solitary 
question  of  Negro  womanhood  remained,  it  were 
amply  sufficient  within  itself,  to  enlist  the  profound- 
est  moral  concern  of  both  races.  In  its  very  nature 
it  is  the  one  fundamental  question,  the  one  crowning 
concern.  There  is  no  disposition  in  a  matter  so 
transcendentally  important  to  evade  the  brunt  of  the 
issue,  nor  to  do  other  than  to  treat  the  case  as  it  de- 
serves. In  grappling  with  a  question  the  propor- 
tions of  which  are  so  fundamental  and  colossal,  it 
would  be  the  utmost  recreancy  to  duty  to  be  other 
than  candid. 

There  is  profound  philosophy  in  the  pronounced 
guidance  given  the  race,  first  of  all,  in  the  realm  of 
industry.  The  moral  side  of  this  course  exceeds 
far  that  of  the  economic.  The  first  vision  of  thou- 
sands of  Negroes  in  their  emergence  from  the  bonds 
of  slavery  was  that  of  deliverance  from  toil.  To 
such,  freedom  was  synonymous  of  idleness.  Hap- 
pily, this  was  not  true  of  many  other  thousands 
among  them,  and  from  the  class  uninfluenced  by  a 
delusion  so  fatal,  came  the  practical  leaders  of  the 
race  who  taught  the  lesson  that  industry,  and  not 
the  veneer  of  scholarship  and  a  showy  appearance, 
is  the  first  essential  of  race  respectability  if  not  of 
race  preservation.  It  was  the  embodiment  of  this 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          135 

thought  in  the  founding  of  the  greatest  Negro  in- 
stitution in  the  world  that  made  President  Booker 
T.  Washington  the  greatest  Negro  in  the  world.  It 
was  not  alone  an  answer  to  the  empty  dream  of  idle- 
ness, it  is  the  piston  by  means  of  which  a  multitudi- 
nous people  are  moving  to  a  more  advanced  position. 
The  chief  difficulty,  then,  being  the  largely  un- 
checked unchastity  reaching  from  the  influence  of 
original  savagery  clear  through  the  blighting  condi- 
tions of  slavery,  this  serious  difficulty  to  race  preser- 
vation would  have  received  fresh  incentive  by  the 
mistaken  notion  of  the  real  meaning  of  emancipa- 
tion, but  for  the  timely  action  of  certain  wise  lead- 
ers. Idleness  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  immoral- 
ity among  women,  no  matter  what  the  race  or  na- 
tion be,  the  climate,  or  the  condition.  When  to  the 
blight  already  named,  is  superinduced  that  of  idle- 
ness, it  becomes  a  question  of  growing  formidable- 
ness  to  the  women  of  the  Negro  race.  Hence  the 
wisdom  of  the  inculcation  of  principles  of  industry 
and  thrift  so  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  Negro  in- 
dustrial schools  in  the  states  of  the  South. 

To  leave  this  branch  of  the  subject  here  would 
be  manifestly  unfair  to  the  Negro  race.  Among  his 
other  aspirations  is  to  be  named  that  of  a  higher 
ideal  of  character.  The  higher  plane  of  the  racial 
life  of  the  Negro  is  being  constantly  supplemented 
by  fresh  installments  of  strength.  Each  year  the 
racial  ranks  at  the  front  are  being  reinforced  by 
men  and  women  of  undoubted  moral  strength. 


136          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Along  the  heights  are  the  exceptional  ones  of  exalt- 
ed worth  who  serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  to  the 
struggling  masses  beneath.  Actuated  by  a  purpose 
to  make  the  race  worthy  of  a  place  on  the  American 
continent,  so  fundamental  a  principle  as  that  of 
chaste  and  pure  womanhood  is  not  lost  sight  of. 
That  this  spirit  is  growing,  and  that  the  race  is  ris- 
ing in  the  scale  of  moral  excellence  on  the  side  of 
both  sexes  is  one  of  the  most  assuring  indications 
of  the  worthiness  of  the  race.  Infractions  of  race 
integrity  decrease  as  the  gradations  of  Negro  char- 
acter are  followed  from  the  low  levels  until  they 
cease  on  the  higher  planes  of  racial  life.  There 
is  an  evident  race  patriotism,  a  commendable 
loyalty  looking  to  a  wholesome  segregation  of  blood, 
that  is  growing  with  the  growth  of  the  race.  With- 
out all  this,  all  else  that  is  claimed  for  Negro  ad- 
vancement were  a  sham. 

Not  until  the  Negro  was  free  did  he  come  to 
know  the  full  meaning  of  home.  He  had  a  habitation 
in  the  hut  of  his  servitude,  but  not  a  home.  To  him 
a  home  was  an  institution  as  new  practically  as  his 
freedom  was  to  him  novel.  Mother  and  wife  were 
largely  mere  names,  so  far  as  their  influence  for 
practical  good  to  the  millions  of  the  enslaved  race 
went.  In  starting  on  his  other  tasks  on  a  race  ca- 
reer, the  Negro  had  to  found  the  new  idea  of  home, 
and  begin  at  bottom  to  generate  the  principles  of 
home  life.  Among  the  accomplishments  of  the  race, 
this  achievement,  silently  but  certainly  wrought  into 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          137 

the  texture  of  the  Negro  life  of  the  South,  is  not 
the  least.  To  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  race, 
home  now  has  a  meaning,  and  mother  and  wife  are 
no  longer  practical  misnomers.  Severed  families 
and  disrupted  homes  were  common  in  the  traffic  of 
slavery.  This  destroyed  the  true  sense  of  security  in 
the  attempted  home  in  the  Negro  quarters  of  the 
Long  Ago,  and  individualized  the  Negro  in  such  a 
way  as  to  blot  out  the  idea  of  home. 

The  commendable  ambition  of  the  Negro  to  own 
land  and  to  build  a  home  of  his  own,  each  as  good 
as  his  means  will  allow,  is  one  of  the  most  animat- 
ing signs  of  Negro  progress.  A  race  possessed  of  an 
ambition  like  this,  and  exemplifying  a  spirit  such 
as  is  shown  by  the  Negro  race  at  present,  is  not  cer- 
tainly on  the  decline.  All  this  circles  around  the 
single  idea  of  womanhood,  for  at  last,  the  Negro 
woman  is  the  Negro  home.  A  race  which  supple- 
ments its  ambition  to  attain  to  learning,  to  com- 
mercial and  realty  possession,  to  schools  and  church- 
es of  excellence,  with  that  of  building  and  maintain- 
ing a  comfortable  home,  is  not  among  the  decadent 
peoples.  Measured  by  the  ambition  alone  of  found- 
ing the  best  homes  possible,  the  Negro  race  would 
be  regarded  as  on  the  up-grade.  When  this  is  re- 
inforced by  a  group  of  ambitions  that  ramify  into 
professional,  industrial,  and  educational  life,  the 
progress  of  the  Negro  race  must  be  regarded  as  in- 
disputable. 

Like  other  assets  of  the  Negro,  this  improved 


138          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

home  is  annually  increasing,  alike  in  the  city  and 
in  the  country.  In  many  of  them  are  to  be  found 
the  elements  which  elevate  and  inspire — books, 
magazines,  musical  instruments,  pictures  and  paint- 
ings, together  with  decorations  graduated,  of  course, 
by  the  means  of  the  owner.  This  generation  of 
home  owners  will  be  immensely  increased  when  the 
families  of  boys  and  girls,  issuing  from  conditions 
of  a  higher  conception  of  life,  shall  themselves  take 
their  places  in  the  future  onward  career  of  the  race. 
In  cooperation  with  the  home  other  agencies  are, 
meanwhile,  active  in  the  production  of  young  man- 
hood and  womanhood — the  schools  in  their  annual 
products,  the  aspiring  class  reaching  to  heights 
above  them,  the  elimination  of  the  saloon  from  the 
states  of  the  South,  and  other  agencies  by  the  activ- 
ity of  which  the  race  is  being  steadily  aided  in  its 
ambitious  march.  Still,  the  disparity  between  the 
chaste  and  the  others  is  so  great  as  to  be  well-nigh 
appalling,  and  would  be  to  any  other  race  than  that 
of  one  which  has  resisted  disintegration  under  the 
most  adverse  conditions  possible.  There  is  a  long 
and  fearful  uphill  struggle  still  ahead  of  the  Negro 
race,  and  from  one  point  of  view,  its  environment  of 
temptation  from  low,  seductive  white  sources  is 
against  it.  In  some  particulars,  the  inertia  seems 
almost  irresistible,  and  the  friend  of  the  Negro 
would  be  almost  tempted  to  lose  heart,  but  for  the 
inherent  genius  of  the  worthy  colored  man  to  over- 
come appalling  discouragements.  With  undaunted 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          139 

step  he  has  entered  the  various  pursuits  and  profes- 
sions, and  while  often  ridiculed  and  discouraged,  he 
has  increasingly  vindicated  his  right  to  live,  to  labor 
and  to  prosper. 

There  are  serious  local  difficulties  in  some  parts  of 
the  South  where  traditional  influences  operate  to  the 
degradation  of  Negro  women,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
effects  on  the  class  of  men  who  are  largely  responsi- 
ble for  these  conditions.  In  sections,  especially 
where  the  "sporting  gentry"  prevail,  Negro  woman- 
hood is  peculiarly  exposed  to  imposition.  But  the 
steady  progress  of  the  Negro  is  serving  to  expose 
these  more  and  more,  and  with  the  same  commend- 
able zeal  displayed  for  a  higher  life,  these  influences 
must  eventually  succumb.  So  little  is  generally 
known  of  the  silent  and  interior  agencies  at  work 
among  the  higher  class  of  Negroes,  and  so  much  is 
known  of  the  opposite  class,  as  the  eye  of  the  public 
is  directed  chiefly  to  this  lower  class,  that  the  public 
generally  is  altogether  unaware  of  the  contributions 
which  the  worthier  Negro  is  making  to  our  com- 
mon welfare.  One  must  be  familiar  with  these 
interior  conditions,  and  consider  them  in  their  total- 
ity before  he  is  able  to  pass  proper  judgment  on 
the  Negro  as  a  whole.  To  know  of  the  strenuous 
efforts  of  thousands  of  worthy  men  and  women 
among  them,  of  the  force  of  their  example  for  good 
to  the  public,  of  the  sacrifices  which  they  are  con- 
stantly making  for  the  elevation  of  their  kind,  is 
to  awaken  the  liveliest  hope  and  inspire  thankful- 


I4o          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ness.  Detached  facts  are  occasionally  brought  to 
light  respecting  Negro  progress,  but  they  are  often 
regarded  as  so  exceptional  as  to  indicate  nothing  else 
than  exceptionalness.  A  fair  presentation  of  the 
meritoriousness  of  the  race  would  awaken  profound 
surprise.  Not  only  in  the  attainment  of  better  ma- 
terial things  is  the  Negro  laboring,  but  for  higher 
i deals  of  character  he  is  also  striving. 

But  the  cardinal  hope  of  the  race  resides  in  its 
womanliness.  That  many  of  the  men  of  the  race 
have  made  a  definite  advance,  affording  a  magnet 
to  attract  others  upward,  is  immensely  to  their  credit, 
and  that  the  educated  class  of  young  women  is 
doing  much  to  segregate  their  race  on  an  inde- 
pendent basis  by  the  preservation  of  their  womanly 
honor,  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  If  no  other  consid- 
erations were  urged  in  favor  of  the  scholastic  train- 
ing of  the  Negro,  the  fact  that  as  they  are  education- 
ally trained  they  become  more  numerously  virtuous 
and  more  segregated  as  a  race,  would  be  sufficient 
to  prompt  every  patriot  to  espouse  the  cause  of  his 
education  and  elevation.  Here  as  elsewhere  may  it 
not  be  said  that  because  the  Negro  has  advanced  so 
far  in  the  womanly  uplift  of  the  race,  and  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  homes,  in  the  face  of  abounding  dis- 
advantage, that  we  may  look  for  a  rapid  increase 
of  these  in  the  years  of  the  immediate  future  ? 

If  on  the  men  of  the  race  there  is  imposed  a  duty 
of  clearing  the  way  for  the  future  progress  of  their 
people,  on  the  women  of  the  Negro  race  is  imposed 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          141 

a  work  more  silent  and  less  spectacular,  but  of  the 
highest  importance  in  the  stimulation  of  virtue  and 
the  safeguarding  of  their  younger  sisters  against  the 
pitfalls  of  the  times  and  the  peculiar  perils  of  their 
environment.  That  there  is  the  utmost  endeavor 
and  care  on  the  part  of  thousands  of  Negro  mothers 
and  wives  to  rectify  conditions  and  to  fortify  the 
young  womanhood  of  the  race  against  the  dangers 
of  prevailing  vice,  is  true.  The  extent  of  prevalent 
vice  in  the  years  of  the  past,  and  the  ruin  which  it 
has  wrought,  have  served  to  quicken  the  diligence 
and  care  of  these  worthy  women,  in  bringing  into 
requisition  the  brace  of  moral  forces,  which  without 
these  previous  conditions  would  not  now  be  so 
earnestly  emphasized.  The  laxness  of  past  years  is 
suggesting  greater  restrictions  in  the  present,  just 
as  the  dangers  laid  bare  by  the  past  now  show  the 
conditions  to  be  shunned.  The  Negro  woman  must 
vindicate  her  sex  in  the  matter  of  chastity,  just  as 
the  race  of  which  they  are  an  important  part,  has 
already  come  to  vindicate  itself  against  the  charge 
originally  made  of  racial  incapacity.  The  encour- 
agement of  this  feature  of  Negro  endeavor,  on  the 
part  of  the  whites,  would  be  most  praiseworthy. 
Genuine  womanliness  is  so  fundamental  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  a  race  that  it  cannot  be  accorded  a  sec- 
ondary place  in  the  movement  toward  loftier  ideals 
on  the  part  of  the  Negro. 


CHAPTER  XL 

A   CALL  FOR   CHRISTIAN    HUMANITARIANISM. 

The  Christian  public  of  America  is  confronted  by 
a  condition  which  is  unique  in  the  history  of  nations. 
Briefly  stated,  it  is  that  a  segment  of  the  African 
race  has  been  forced  from  its  haunts  in  the  land  of 
its  nativity,  brought  to  America,  subjected  to  bond- 
age for  centuries,  set  at  liberty,  given  the  right  of 
the  franchise,  and  then,  without  experience,  without 
initial  wisdom,  and  without  means  of  a  livelihood, 
left  to  care  for  itself.  The  complications  growing 
put  of  these  conditions  we  call  the  Negro  problem. 
That  it  is  a  problem  centering  in  the  Negro,  by  rea- 
son of  the  successive  steps  already  named,  there  is 
no  doubt,  but  if  it  be  the  Negro  problem,  it  is  by  no 
means  the  Negro's  problem.  If  he  be  the  agent  by 
which  it  has  been  created,  he  is  not  its  creator.  It 
is  the  creation  of  others  with  the  Negro  as  an  hum- 
ble instrument.  If  the  problem  be  in  consequence 
of  the  Negro,  it  is  nevertheless  the  problem  of  the 
white  man.  To  solve  it  is,  therefore,  the  duty  of 
the  whites.  Nor  will  its  solution  be  without  the 
amplest  compensation,  for  in  making  the  Negro  all 
that  he  is  capable  of  becoming,  the  white  man,  by 
this  same  exercise,  will  himself  be  made  the  better 

142 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         143 

and  greater.  In  making  the  Negro  he  will  make 
himself. 

Nor  is  the  problem  one  for  the  white  man  of  the 
South  alone,  it  is  a  national  question.  It  is  quite 
popular,  even  in  certain  high  official  circles,  with- 
out the  states  of  the  South,  for  some  to  say,  "It  is 
a  Southern  question,  and  let  the  people  of  the  South 
settle  it.  They  have  the  Negro  on  their  hands,  un- 
derstand him,  and  they  only  can  control  the  situa- 
tion." Yet  it  is  neither  a  Southern  question,  nor  yet 
is  it  a  Northern  one,  but  one  the  settlement  of  which 
must  be  made  by  the  people  of  the  whole  country. 
The  results  of  the  labor  of  the  Negro  were  shared 
in  alike  by  the  people  of  all  the  nation,  and  were 
being  vastly  enjoyed  in  the  East  even  during  the 
long  period  of  the  abolition  agitation.  For  years 
together,  while  the  abolition  tide  ran  high,  the  cot- 
ton mills  of  the  East  were  manufacturing  the  fabrics 
from  the  cotton  fields  of  the  South,  to  the  enrich- 
ment even  of  those  who  were  loudest  in  their  pro- 
testations against  slavery.  This  is  said  not  by  way 
of  recrimination,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  and  in 
maintenance  of  the  statement  that  all  shared  in  the 
products  of  the  toil  of  the  slave,  and  to  that  degree, 
at  least,  are  under  obligation  to  participate  in  his 
present  relief. 

The  South  has  not  been  altogether  recreant  to 
the  obligation  imposed  by  the  continued  retention  of 
the  Negro  within  her  borders.  With  her  fields  left 
desolate  by  a  protracted  war,  her  industrial  system 


144 

wrecked,  her  people  demoralized  and  impoverished, 
the  South  has  been  compelled  to  provide  educational 
facilities  for  the  Negro  along  with  provisions  for 
the  children  of  the  whites.  A  double  obligation  has 
thus  been  imposed  under  conditions  when  the  South 
was  least  prepared  to  assume  it.  These  educational 
facilities  have  been  altogether  inadequate,  but  there 
have  continued,  in  the  South,  annual  appropriations 
for  a  cause  so  meritorious.  True,  there  has  not  been 
lacking  on  the  part  of  some  from  without  the  South, 
a  commendable  display  of  beneficence  in  behalf  of 
the  education  of  the  Negro,  but  even  with  this,  there 
is  still  an  alarming  inadequacy  of  means. 

For  forty-five  years  this  condition  has  continued 
to  exist.  At  the  outset,  in  the  dawn  of  Negro  free- 
dom, there  were  practically  four  and  a  half  million 
illiterates  among  the  Negroes.  Practically  that  same 
number  exists  today.  Illiteracy  has  been  immensely 
reduced,  but  the  colored  race  has  also  immensely  in- 
creased, so  that  the  situation  in  the  South,  so  far 
as  the  number  of  Negro  illiterates  is  concerned,  is 
about  that  which  it  was  in  1865.  The  Negro  has 
made  gigantic  strides  in  the  advancement  of  his 
race;  he  has  done  what  he  could,  and  has  done  it 
well,  and  has  surpassed  the  most  sanguine  expecta- 
tions of  his  friends,  South  and  North,  by  his  com- 
mendable feats;  still,  the  means  for  his  education 
have  been  altogether  inadequate. 

While  it  might  be  said  that  the  states  of  the  South 
have  not  done  all  that  might  have  been  done  for  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          145 

education  of  the  Negro,  that  which  has  been  done, 
has  been  done  out  of  her  poverty,  and  that  she  should 
have  done  as  much  is  praiseworthy.  The  condition 
is  one  which  appeals  not  to  the  South  alone,  in  be- 
half of  an  unfortunate  race,  but  to  all  the  states 
alike.  It  is  a  question  which  addresses  itself  to  the 
constructive  statesmanship  of  a  Christian  nation. 
There  is  little  hesitation  to  appropriate  millions  an- 
nually to  internal  improvements,  to  public  buildings, 
and  the  improvement  of  waterways,  and  the  increase 
of  the  navy,  not  to  act  so  much  for  public  defense  as 
to  act  as  a  defiance  to  an  imaginary  "yellow  peril," 
while  the  great  black  peril  is  statedly  overlooked, 
and  is  not  even  so  much  as  named.  Nor  is  it  for- 
gotten that  there  is  a  white  peril,  in  the  illiterate 
Caucasions  in  the  states  of  the  South.  Education 
is  as  much  in  demand  for  the  one  as  for  the  other. 
This  is  a  condition  left  largely  untouched  for  long 
and  dreary  decades  by  the  Christian  nation  of 
America. 

Not  alone  from  this  has  the  Negro  population  of 
the  South  suffered.  The  question  of  his  education 
has  not  been  without  stout  opposition  locally.  It  is 
claimed  by  not  a  few  in  the  South,  that  from  the 
education  of  the  Negro  there  would  ensue  a  worse 
condition  than  that  which  comes  of  his  being  kept 
in  a  state  of  ignorance.  This  objection  to  the  edu- 
cation of  a  certain  class  is  not  new.  It  was  urged 
long  ago  against  Christianizing  the  Negro  of  the 
West  Indies,  when  the  Moravian  missionaries,  Dober 


i46          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  Nitzschmann,  sought  that  far  region  to  carry 
the  gospel  to  the  Negro  slaves  laboring  on  the  sugar 
plantations.  To  the  Moravians  belong  the  honor 
of  first  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  enslaved  Negro. 
Enlightenment  was  opposed  because  it  was  stoutly 
insisted  that  it  would  permanently  unfit  the  slave  for 
profitable  service.  The  same  monstrous  objection 
confronted  William  Carey  when  he  went  to  India 
with  the  gospel.  The  English  traders  resisted  him 
by  cruel  insult  and  mistreatment  because  it  was 
claimed  that  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  of  India 
would  render  them  the  more  capable  of  resisting  the 
cupidity  imposed  on  them  by  the  avaricious  British. 
The  time  was  when  the  education  of  women  in  Eng- 
land was  opposed  for  a  similar  reason — that  by  the 
diversion  of  the  faculties  of  woman  to  literary  pur- 
suits she  would  be  unfitted  for  domestic  cares  and 
household  duties.  It  was  this  agitation  in  England 
which  evoked  from  the  pen  of  the  celebrated  wit, 
Sydney  Smith,  in  The  Edinburgh  Review,  a  scath- 
ing article  on  female  education,  who,  among  other 
things  said :  "Can  anything  be  more  absurd  than  to 
suppose  that  the  care  and  solicitude  which  a  mother 
feels  for  her  children  depends  upon  her  ignorance 
of  Greek  and  mathematics?  It  would  appear  from 
such  objections,  that  ignorance  is  the  great  civilizer 
of  the  world." 

Not  until  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  ignorance 
is  more  helpful  than  education,  is  the  objection 
worthy  of  serious  consideration.  As  a  matter  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         147 

fact,  there  are  thousands  of  educated  Negroes  in 
America.  Has  the  country  suffered  in  consequence  ? 
With  their  increasing  efficiency  as  a  result  of  mental 
training  there  has  been  a  corresponding  increase  of 
prosperity.  Does  prosperity  invite  detriment?  Is 
increased  skill  in  the  use  of  implements  of  husbandry 
and  of  the  shop  to  be  decried  in  the  clamor  for  ignor- 
ant labor? 

But  the  objection  to  the  Negro  does  not  end  here. 
Years  ago  he  was  mocked  with  the  charge  of  inca- 
pacity, and  now  that  he  has  shown  himself  capable, 
the  cry  is  raised  from  the  opposite  quarter  that  he 
is  becoming  a  competitor  in  the  varied  spheres  of 
labor.  Without  stopping  to  show  the  utter  futility 
of  an  outcry  like  this,  because  of  the  multiplicity  of 
the  means  of  labor,  and  because  of  the  sufficiency  of 
room  for  all,  yet  it  may  be  said  that  the  Negro  in 
his  onward  strides  may  expect  to  encounter  this  diffi- 
culty. In  proportion  to  the  growth  of  his  efficiency 
will  he  continue  to  encounter  opposition  of  divers 
kinds.  In  the  erection  of  the  barrier  already  named, 
there  are  involved  unjustifiable  opposition,  the  at- 
tempted retard  of  a  race  which  is  seeking  to  advance, 
and  to  promote  its  interests,  the  attempted  check  of 
industry,  the  effort  to  take  advantage  of  a  people 
whose  conditions  place  them  at  a  disadvantage,  an 
unworthy  appeal  to  racial  prejudice,  and  the  effort 
to  crowd  the  Negro  off  the  scene  altogether. 

Looking  still  further  into  the  situation,  every  one 
is  aware  of  numerous  acts  of  unkindness,  petty  in- 


I48          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

justice,  and  not  infrequently  of  cruelty,  and  yet 
oftener  than  otherwise  these  occur  without  the 
slightest  provocation.  A  single  incident  will  serve 
to  illustrate  many  others.  Some  time  ago,  in  a 
Southern  city,  a  street  car  was  in  the  act  of  starting 
from  a  terminal  point  which  was  near  a  railway  sta- 
tion. Between  the  two  points  the  sand  was  deep,  the 
sun  was  blazing,  and  the  interval  of  distance  un- 
shaded. The  hand  of  the  conductor  of  the  street  car 
was  already  on  the  bell  cord,  when  he  standing  in  a 
group  of  young  men  on  the  rear  platform,  observed  a 
corpulent  Negro  man  with  a  heavy  bundle  over  his 
shoulder,  and  a  large,  worn  sachel  in  his  hand,  tug- 
ging as  rapidly  as  he  could  through  the  hot  deep  sand 
to  reach  the  street  car.  He  was  evidently  a  passenger 
seeking  transfer  across  the  city.  The  struggles  of 
the  black  man,  his  strained  eyes  and  perspiring  face, 
excited  the  merriment  of  the  group  on  the  platform, 
in  which  merriment  the  conductor  joined.  Just  as 
the  Negro  came  within  a  few  feet  of  the  car  the 
bell  was  rung  and  the  car  started.  With  desperate 
efforts  the  struggling  man  was  enabled  to  swing  his 
heavy  bundle  to  the  platform,  but  with  his  satchel 
he  was  left  rapidly  behind.  A  block  or  two  further 
on  the  bundle  was  kicked  into  the  street,  leaving  the 
unfortunate  man  widely  separated  from  a  portion  of 
his  luggage.  Under  similar  conditions  a  white  man 
would  have  resorted  to  the  courts  for  redress,  but 
what  recourse  was  possibly  left  the  Negro?  Ex- 
pressions of  injustice,  not  to  say  of  downright  in- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         149 

humanity,  like  this,  are  not  infrequent,  and  call  for 
the  protection  of  a  loftier  sentiment.  Not  alone 
by  the  expression  of  sentiment,  but  by  the  exercise 
of  direct  interest  and  effort  should  the  Negro  be 
aided.  In  the  providence  of  God  there  is  com- 
mitted to  our  care,  as  common  trustees,  the  fate  of 
millions  of  people.  Independent  of  the  obligations 
imposed  for  reasons  stated  in  a  former  chapter,  is 
the  one  of  bare  humanity.  Had  the  Negro  never 
struck  an  industrial  blow,  nor  yielded  a  cent  of 
profit,  and  was  still  in  contact  with  the  stronger  and 
more  highly  favored  race,  the  demand  of  Christian 
humanitarianism  would  still  be  urgent.  But  that 
which  he  has  been  to  the  country,  that  of  which  he 
has  been  the  producer,  together  with  that  which  he 
now  is,  a  receptive,  responsive  man,  groping  his  way 
as  best  he  can  toward  a  better  life  and  condition — 
all  these  would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  is  worthier 
of  something  more  than  aversion  and  prejudice. 

Side  by  side  with  the  white  race,  the  large  Negro 
population  affords  a  sphere  for  the  exercise  of  the 
spirit  both  of  home  and  foreign  missions.  Africa 
is  at  our  door — Ethiopia  stretches  forth  her  hands. 
The  misinterpretation  of  providence  would  seem,  un- 
der existing  conditions,  to  be  impossible.  If,  how- 
ever, our  thoughts  concerning  the  Negro  be  only 
those  of  opposition,  prejudice  or  aversion,  then  shall 
we  absolutely  fail  of  the  appreciation  of  our  duty. 

We  despise  the  arrogance  and  exclusiveness  of  a 
sect  which  flourished  in  the  days  of  the  Master,  the 


150          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

haughty  bearing  of  which  sect  was  such  that  it  ab- 
stained from  touching  others,  fearful  of  contamina- 
tion. We  detest  the  stateliness  of  their  port  as  they 
held  themselves  aloof  from  the  Gentiles,  whom  they 
classed  as  heathen,  and  whose  bearing  wore  the  ex- 
pression, "I  am  better  than  thou."  We  read  with 
interest  of  the  prejudice  of  a  Jewish  disciple  who 
had  been  commissioned  to  a  Gentile  heathen  home, 
and  who  after  a  struggle  was  compelled  to  say,  "Of 
a  truth,  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  per- 
sons." With  reluctant  spirit  the  stern  Jew  yielded, 
and  the  centurion  was  recognized  as  a  man  of  God 
purely  from  unclouded  principle. 

Far  more  than  we  are  willing  to  acknowledge,  we 
are  swayed  by  prejudice.  While  its  class  among  the 
passions  is  that  of  the  unworthy,  prejudice  is  as 
strong  as  steel,  as  firm  as  adamant.  In  its  stability  it 
is  like  the  mountains.  In  its  paradoxical  character  it 
can  both  hear  and  not  hear.  Deaf  to  a  thousand 
thunders  on  one  side,  on  the  other  it  can  hear  the  tick 
of  a  watch.  An  element  of  weakness,  there  is  yet 
nothing  stronger.  While  it  is  unworthy,  it  is  one 
of  the  most  potent  of  the  agencies  that  sway  the 
judgment.  It  excites  ridicule  and  opposition  where 
it  should  stir  pity  and  awaken  interest.  But  once 
overcome  by  judgment  and  conscience,  it  is  like  the 
sudden  reversal  of  a  mountain  torrent.  Saul,  the 
prejudiced  Pharisee,  became  Paul,  the  prince  of 
apostles.  It  indicates  the  sudden  development  of  a 
great  character  when  prejudice  succumbs  to  prin- 
ciple, and  passion  yields  to  duty. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         151 

This  is  the  demand  of  the  present  hour.  More 
than  on  any  others  Christianity  has  laid  its  grip  on 
the  white  race  of  the  world,  yet  innately  this  white 
race  cherishes  an  aversion  for  the  colored  races — 
the  red,  the  tawny,  the  saffron,  and  the  black.  This 
aversion  is  born  of  nature,  not  of  grace.  If  God  is 
no  respecter  of  persons,  neither  should  his  people 
be.  Controlled  as  we  may  be  by  the  conventionali- 
ties of  social  life,  with  God,  the  common  basis  is 
one  of  humanity.  And  the  genius  of  our  Christian- 
ity is  one  of  religious  equality.  Not  till  the  middle 
wall  of  partition  is  leveled  religiously  between  man 
and  man,  and  every  nation  and  tribe  is  greeted  on 
the  basis  of  cofraternity,  will  the  religion  of  the 
Nazarene  make  headway  in  the  world.  The  en- 
larged application  of  this  principle  to  the  present  dis- 
cussion is  unnecessary,  its  statement  is  its  applica- 
tion. More  than  on  any  ground,  Christianity  halts 
just  here.  No  Christian  can  follow  alone  the  cleav- 
age of  preference,  for  that  may  be  only  the  index- 
finger  of  prejudice;  each  must  yield  to  duty  and 
principle  if  his  convictions  savor  of  the  views  of 
the  Nazarene.  "Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded 
in  his  own  mind." 

The  numerous  inequalities  in  the  application  of 
the  laws  of  a  common  country;  the  frequent  in- 
justices already  recited  in  the  preceding  pages;  the 
acts  of  vengeance  indulged  and  tolerated,  and  the 
neglect  of  the  moral  condition  of  millions  of  a  race, 
no  matter  what  be  the  reasons  given  or  the  pretext 


152          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

offered,  are  conditions  which  call  for  white  Chris- 
tian manliness,  sympathy,  and  effort.  It  should  be 
clear  to  all  alike  that  present  conditions  are  bearing 
on  their  surface  toward  the  future,  the  seeds  of  trou- 
bles to  come.  The  results  are  not  yet  visible,  they 
are  only  indicated  in  the  tendencies  of  the  present, 
and  tendencies  are  prophetic.  Unless  relief  to  the 
present  situation  be  afforded,  a  harvest  of  prob- 
lematical difficulties  will  grow  for  a  future  genera- 
tion. Notning  is  clearer  than  that  demoralization 
is  insidiously  seeking  its  way  beneath  the  founda- 
tions of  our  most  cherished  institutions.  Remove 
from  the  present  generation  respect  for  law  and  a 
disregard  of  the  simplest  rights,  and  the  vision  of 
disaster  already  looms  on  the  horizon  of  the  future. 
Some  time  ago  the  writer  was  seated  in  the  editorial 
room  of  a  certain  prominent  daily  journal,  when  the 
report  was  brought  in  that  a  young  man  known  to 
the  editor  had  killed  a  Negro,  and  the  reporter  of 
the  deed  said,  "And  he  is  thinking  of  running  off." 
The  reply  from  the  young  editor  was :  "Not  for  kill- 
ing a  Negro!"  The  conditions  from  which  senti- 
ments like  these  are  even  possible  portend  nothing 
cheering  for  the  future.  If  the  sturdy  Christian  sen- 
timent of  the  land  cannot  correct  these  and  other 
conditions,  nothing  can. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

MOB  VIOLENCE. 

(For  much  of  the  substance  of  this  chapter,  the  author 
acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  that  admirable  and  incisive 
work  of  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  entitled  "The  Present 
South,"  Chapter  VI.) 

Until  a  late  period  in  the  history  of  the  South, 
lynching  was  practically  unknown.  There  was  an 
occasional  outbreak  of  violence,  but  so  rare  was  it, 
that  it  excited  unusual  surprise  and  comment,  and 
created  a  profound  sensation.  But  within  the  last 
few  decades  of  Southern  history,  lynching  has  be- 
come so  prevalent  that  it  ceases  now  to  excite  horror 
or  to  awaken  surprise.  Like  all  other  evils  with 
which  society  is  afflicted,  and  which  remain  un- 
checked, lynching  has  continued  to  grow  until  it  has 
come  to  assume  alarming  proportions.  Like  other 
unchecked  evils,  too,  lynching  has  passed  its  original 
bounds,  not  now  being  restricted  to  the  infliction  of 
violent  death  for  a  single  crime,  but  employed  for 
other  offenses,  sometimes  for  the  most  trivial.  Nor 
are  its  victims  of  one  race  now,  as  was  once  true. 
Once  only  Negroes  were  executed  by  the  mob,  but 
it  has  come  to  pass,  as  a  result  of  the  growth  of  the 
evil,  whites  have  become  its  victims  also. 

With  respect  to  lynching,  it  is  as  true  as  it  is  of 

153 


154          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

all  open  violations  of  the  law — lawlessness  begets 
lawlessness.  Tolerated  and  unrestrained,  lawless- 
ness invariably  grows.  The  essence  of  lynching  is 
not  the  satisfaction  of  the  law,  but  revenge,  and  re- 
venge is  an  endless  chain.  For  the  same  reason 
which  first  actuates  it,  it  may  be  continued  indefi- 
nitely. Once  sought,  it  may  be  responded  to  with 
the  same  motive,  and  thus  continue  indefinitely.  Its 
direct  effect  is  demoralization  without  limit.  No 
law  can  be  satisfied  by  the  display  of  revenge. 

Justification  for  lynching  is  sought  upon  these 
grounds,  the  first  of  which  is  that  the  methods  which 
it  employs  are  necessary  to  prevent  the  repetition 
of  the  crime  of  which  the  criminal  is  guilty.  The 
second  ground  is  to  avoid  the  delay  of  court  proce- 
dure in  the  matter  of  bringing  the  perpetrator  to  trial. 
The  third  is  to  save  the  victim  of  assault  from  the 
humiliation  of  publicity  in  bearing  testimony  at  the 
trial  of  the  offender.  That  is  to  say,  this  was  the 
original  basis  when  lynching  was  employed  alone 
for  criminal  assault.  But  the  demoralization  pro- 
duced by  the  methods  founded  on  these  grounds  as 
a  common  basis  has  long  since  passed  beyond  these 
boundaries,  and  has  assumed  a  vaster  range  in  which 
sometimes  even  petty  offenses  are  included. 

By  even  a  casual  examination  of  the  basis  of 
the  mob  bent  on  lynching,  we  shall  find  that  the 
grounds  sought  for  its  justification  are  altogether 
untenable — that  they  fall  far  short  in  each  instance 
of  the  original  purpose.  Take,  for  instance,  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          155 

first-named  reason  assigned — that  of  preventing  the 
repetition  of  the  crime.  Has  lynching  done  this? 
Do  the  offenders  against  the  law  decrease  because 
of  mobocrary?  Has  it  proved  a  remedy  for  the 
crime  of  rape?  Every  one  knows  that  it  has  not 
acted  as  a  deterrent  to  crime.  No  matter  how  this 
may  be  accounted  for,  it  is  true.  The  holocaust  of 
crime  continues,  the  demoralization  is  still  rampant, 
the  law  continues  to  be  violated.  This  has  been  evi- 
dent for  years,  and  yet  the  practice  of  lynching  con- 
tinues. Is  there  not  evidence  in  this  that  the  plea 
of  the  lynchers  is  not  sincere  when  they  claim  that  it 
is  to  prevent  the  repetition  of  the  deed,  and  does  it 
not  go  far  toward  establishing  the  fact  that  it  is 
in  the  interest  of  revenge,  rather  than  for  the  pur- 
pose named  as  the  reason  for  the  mob? 

How  about  the  law's  delay  in  the  trial  of  offend- 
ers? There  is  occasional  reason  for  this  complaint, 
but  not  often  with  respect  to  crime  committed,  espe- 
cially by  those  who  are  charged  with  assault  on 
women.  There  are  conditions  when  the  offense 
against  a  given  victim  is  peculiarly  horrible,  and 
when  the  offender,  as  a  member  of  a  weaker  race, 
becomes  the  object  of  special  public  wrath,  and  when 
the  courts  seem  tardy  of  action.  Beneath  the  rest- 
lessness evinced  on  such  occasions  it  is  the  spirit  of 
revenge  which  cries  for  execution,  and  not  the  spirit 
of  justice  for  which  the  populace  clamors.  The 
crowd  on  the  outside  has  already  rendered  the  ver- 
dict, and  demands  the  penalty,  and  yet,  not  a  step 


156         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

has  been  taken  save  that  of  the  apprehension  of  the 
offender.  Under  a  strain  of  popular  excitement  and 
exasperation,  a  short  time  is  regarded  as  quite  long. 
Delays  of  the  court  do  not  ordinarily  come  in  con- 
nection with  "cases  where  the  accused  is  a  helpless 
and  ignorant  member  of  society,  but  where  the  de- 
fense can  command  those  resources  of  legal  talent 
and  of  technical  procedure  which  are  possible  only 
to  the  rich."*  Where  are  the  cases  on  record  where 
heinous  crime  in  any  of  the  states  has  failed  of 
prompt  action  on  the  part  of  the  courts  ?  It  does  not 
seem  that  a  charge  like  this  can  be  justly  made 
against  our  American  judiciary.  As  between  the 
morbid  mob,  swayed  solely  by  passion,  and  a  court 
where  justice  is  sought  to  be  administered,  there 
should  be  no  hesitation  of  choice. 

The  plea  sometimes  made  that  the  mob  is  "the 
people"  resuming  their  power  delegated  to  the  court, 
is  too  flimsy  as  a  defense,  and  utterly  void  of  the 
thing  assumed.  So  far  from  being  "the  people,"  the 
mob  is  usually  composed  of  an  irresponsible  minority 
with  nothing  of  popular  coherency  holding  it  to- 
gether, nothing  of  a  great  popular  and  permanent 
movement  for  good,  utterly  nothing  to  vindicate  its 
existence  or  its  conduct,  and  going  to  pieces  after 
the  excitement  is  past.  Think  of  a  body  of  reckless 
men  "assuming  the  august  prerogatives  of  society !" 

So  far  from  being  "the  people,"  every  mob  is  an 
enemy  of  the  people  assailing  the  strongest  cordon 
of  defense  about  society.  It  turns  law  into  chaos, 

*"The  Present  South,"  p.  178. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          157 

and  deliberately  sets  at  naught  the  most  cherished  in- 
stitutions of  the  people.  It  usurps  the  most  delicate 
functions  possible,  and  for  order  substitutes  violence, 
to  avoid  which  the  courts  are  established  and  main- 
tained. Into  the  hands  of  the  police,  or  the  con- 
stabulary, and  the  courts  is  lodged  the  apprehension 
and  proper  adjudication  of  offenses  against  society, 
and  these  are  the  strongholds  really  attacked  by  the 
mob.  In  the  protection  of  that  most  sacred  of  all 
earthly  boons,  human  life,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
society  against  crime,  on  the  other,  the  constabulary 
and  court  are  maintained.  They,  one  or  both,  may 
err,  sometimes  do,  but  they  are  the  nearest  approxi- 
mation possible  to  the  ends  in  view.  To  protect  the 
innocent,  and  to  punish  the  guilty,  each  with  due  de- 
liberation, is  the  function  of  the  court.  Its  duty  is 
clear  and  well-defined.  That  there  may  be  no  un- 
due delay,  and  equally  no  undue  haste,  should  be  the 
motive  controlling  the  court. 

At  times  there  has  seemed  to  be  unseemly  haste  in 
the  trials  of  offenders  charged  with  the  crime  of 
assault  on  women.  Courts  have  been  hurriedly 
called,  juries  empanelled,  the  verdict  rendered,  and 
the  sentence  pronounced  within  the  space  of  a  few 
hours.  Under  conditions  like  these,  with  the  public 
mind  inflamed,  the  verdict  has  been  made  in  advance, 
and  the  court  procedure  has  been  nothing  more  than 
a  merely  mechanical  performance.  There  is  danger, 
under  conditions  like  these,  as  Mr.  Murphy  wisely 


158          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

suggests,  in  his  "Present  South,"  of  seeking  to  pre- 
vent the  mob  from  turning  itself  into  a  court  by 
turning  the  court  into  a  mob.  The  animus  of  at 
least  some  mobs  has  been  shown  by  their  forcibly 
taking  prisoners  from  the  officers  after  they  have 
been  duly  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced,  and  while 
passing  from  the  court-room  to  the  prison,  have 
been  hanged  in  utter  defiance  of  the  law  before  the 
eyes  of  jurors  and  court  alike.  What  becomes  of 
the  pretense  of  the  protection  of  society  in  view  of 
a  spectacle  like  this  ?  Fortunately  for  society,  these 
morbid  minorities  are  quite  anything  else  than  the 
representatives  of  the  sentiments  of  "the  people." 
Criminality  like  this  is  .at  least  as  harmful  to  the 
interests  of  society  as  is  that  of  the  individual 
charged  with  the  crime  for  which  he  was  sentenced 
to  hang. 

Coming  now  to  the  last  pretext  offered  in  defense 
of  mobocracy — that  of  protecting  the  victim  of  the 
crime  from  being  forced  publicly  to  face  her  accuser 
in  the  court,  this  is  as  devoid  of  substantiation  as 
are  the  other  grounds  over  which  we  have  come. 
By  reason  of  its  association,  and  that  a  woman,  or 
a  feminine  child,  this  has  been  considered  unanswer- 
able when  urged  in  defense  of  the  existence  of  the 
mob.  To  quote  again  Mr.  Murphy,  in  the  "Present 
South,"  there  may  be  said  in  reply  to  this:  "yet 
when  we  have  eliminated  the  cases — by  far  the  great- 
er number — in  which  the  prisoner  of  the  mob  was 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          159 

not  even  charged  with  any  crime  against  women, 
but  with  arson,  or  robbery,  or  attempted  murder, 
and  when  we  have  eliminated,  among  the  cases  of 
assault  among  women,  the  number  in  which  death 
has  resulted,  and  the  victim  is  thus  prevented  from 
all  testimony,  legal  or  extra-legal,  the  number  of 
cases  which  come  within  the  traditional  excuse  is 
extremely  small."  That  on  which  the  argument  in 
defense  of  the  mob  is  founded,  then,  is  the  ordeal 
of  bearing  testimony  in  the  court,  and  thus  add  hu- 
miliation to  shame  and  criminal  injury  by  being  ex- 
posed afresh  to  public  gaze.  But  is  the  woman  really 
relieved  of  this  ordeal  by  the  mob  ?  Is  she  not  more 
exposed  to  publicity  than  she  would  be  in  a  trial  held 
under  restrictions  such  as  are  guaranteed  the  court  ? 
Let  us  see. 

The  judge  before  whom  the  trial  is  held  has  full 
authority  to  clear  the  court-room  of  all  excepting 
those  directly  interested.  He  has  authority  to  con- 
fine the  examination  to  questions  which  occasion 
no  offense,  or  in  his  discretion,  so  change  the  place 
of  holding  the  court  as  to  preserve  the  utmost  pri- 
vacy, and  yet  secure  the  ends  of  justice.  Is  there 
any  such  guardianship  of  privacy  in  the  home  of  the 
victim  where  any  one,  or  every  one,  who  wishes  to 
join  in  the  promiscuous  crowd  in  the  scout  of  the 
country,  arresting  every  suspected  Negro  and  haling 
him  into  her  presence  is  permitted  to  enter?  Not 
one  suspected  criminal,  perhaps,  but  a  number  are 


160         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

brought  by  the  miscellaneous  multitude  before  her 
for  identification.  So  much  for  the  protection  of 
privacy  from  prurient  curiosity. 

How  about  the  identification  ?  Is  one  able  always 
to  say,  "Thou  art  the  man  ?"  In  her  darkened  room 
can  the  victim  say  positively  who  is  or  who  is  not 
the  assailant?  In  a  number  of  reported  instances, 
victims  have  said  that  they  could  not  positively  say 
that  the  apprehended  Negro  was  the  one  who  made 
the  assault,  yet,  in  its  fury,  this  same  mob  of  ex- 
cited men,  these  chivalrous  protecters  of  society, 
these  who  call  themselves  "the  people,"  have  as- 
sumed that  a  certain  one  is  the  criminal  assailant, 
and,  acting  on  this  assumption,  have  hanged  him. 
Supposing  that  the  arrested  one  be  the  assailant, 
there  is  not  a  stiva  of  right  guaranteed  the  violent 
crowd  to  inflict  punishment.  On  the  most  slender 
circumstantial  evidence  sometimes,  mobs  have  acted 
in  the  execution  of  their  deeds.  What  is  the  result 
of  all  this? 

The  law  has  been  violently  violated  by  the  mob ; 
the  public  demoralized ;  the  courts  abjured,  and  the 
relations  between  the  races  made  more  stringent 
without  cause. 

The  mob  is  without  a  single  redeeming  quality. 
It  has  everything  in  it  to  condemn,  nothing  to  com- 
mend. It  may  have  its  defenders,  but  it  has  no  de- 
fense. The  end  which  it  serves  is  hurtful  and  only 
hurtful.  The  recognition  of  the  fact  that  this  pseu- 
do-chivalry deals  a  blow  at  society  at  large  is  suffi- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         161 

cient  within  itself  for  heroic  steps  to  be  taken  to  give 
a  summary  check  to  this  barbarous  practice.  It  is 
this  growing  public  sense  which  found  a  voice  in 
"The  (Atlanta)  Constitution,"  under  date  of  June 
27th,  1903,  when  it  says:  "The  time  when  the 
lynching  of  a  certain  breed  of  brutes  could  be  winked 
at  because  of  satisfaction  that  punishment  came  to 
him  quietly  and  to  the  uttermost,  has  given  way  to  a 
time  when  the  greater  peril  to  society  is  the  mob 
itself  which  does  the  work  of  vengeance.  Against 
the  growth  of  that  evil  the  best  sense  of  the  nation 
needs  to  combine  and  enforce  an  adequate  protec- 
tion."* 

Later  than  this  came  a  recommendation  in  a  mes- 
sage to  Congress  from  President  Roosevelt  that 
the  matter  be  made  one  of  national  import  by  the 
passage  of  a  law  against  lynching  by  Congress. 
These  omens  point  to  a  gradual  cessation  of  the 
crime  of  lynching  by  virtue  of  the  robust  public  sen- 
timent of  the  people  of  the  country  at  large.  Noth- 
ing is  clearer  than  that  lynching  must  claim  attention 
such  as  it  has  not  hitherto  had.  The  able  journalism 
of  the  South  is  becoming  more  pronounced  against 
it,  but  this  is  not  sufficient  of  itself  to  check  it.  The 
appeal  comes  to  the  highest  type  of  patriotism  to 
wipe  out  a  stain  which  has  become  national  in  its 
effect,  though  restricted  largely  to  only  one  part  of 
the  American  Union. 

It  is  refreshing  in  this  connection  to  present  an 
editorial  from  the  columns  of  The  Courier- Journal, 

*Quoted  from  "The  Present  South,"  p.  182. 


162          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Louisville,  Kentucky,  under  date  Aug.  I3th,  1909. 
It  is  as  follows : 

"THE  COLOR  LINE." 

"The  color  line  is  drawn  sharply  by  lynching  in 
Kentucky.  Several  weeks  ago  a  Frankfort  Negro 
was  lynched  by  a  mob  for  having  shot  a  circus  man. 
In  Trigg  county,  a  Negro  boy,  charged  with  at- 
tempted assault,  was  lynched.  Between  the  dates  of 
these  two  lynchings  Dr.  Nuttall,  a  physician  in 
charge  of  patients  at  the  'Feeble  Minded  Institute,' 
at  Frankfort,  was  charged  with  having  assaulted  a 
woman  under  his  care.  He  was  allowed  ample  time 
to  make  preparation  to  avoid  arrest,  and  after  a  good 
deal  of  delay  that  might  easily  have  been  avoided, 
a  reward  was  offered  for  him.  There  was  no  ap- 
parent interest  upon  the  part  of  the  authorities  in 
bringing  him  to  trial. 

"The  hoodlums  at  Frankfort  and  those  in  Trigg 
county  committed  murder  for  the  pleasure  there  was 
in  stringing  up  a  defenseless  victim.  The  three 
brothers  of  the  girl  in  Trigg  county,  to  whom  an 
improper  proposal  was  made,  were  guarding  the 
Negro  on  his  way  to  jail,  when  the  mob  interfered. 
Their  conduct  under  trying  circumstances  was  cred- 
itable. The  Negro  no  doubt  would  have  been  con- 
victed if  he  had  been  put  in  jail.  A  Negro  tried  for 
criminal  assault  is  not  dealt  tenderly  with  by  a  jury 
of  white  men. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         163 

"There  is  but  one  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from 
the  three  cases.  Attempted  criminal  assault  is  pun- 
ishable by  death  without  trial,  if  the  accused  be  black. 
Shooting  and  wounding  is  punishable  by  death  with- 
out trial,  if  the  accused  is  black.  Criminal  assault 
is  to  be  winked  at,  if  the  accused  is  white  and  promi- 
nent. It  is  difficult  to  decide  which  is  more  humili- 
ating to  decent  citizens,  the  mob  murders  or  the  con- 
temptible machinery  of  the  law  which  admits  of 
courtesy  being  shown  to  Dr.  Nuttall." 

Yet  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  we  hear  much  about 
the  Negroes  shielding  their  criminals  from  justice. 
It  seems  eminently  proper  for  the  authorities  to  fum- 
ble about  matters  provided  the  criminal  be  not  of  a 
given  color.  No  serious  protest  is  raised  if  one  who 
is  not  a  Negro  be  furnished  avenues  of  escape  from 
the  consequences  of  his  crime,  much  of  which  proves, 
not  so  much  the  desire  to  bring  the  criminal,  irre- 
spective of  all  considerations,  to  justice,  as  that  of 
the  disappointment  of  the  mob  to  find  its  victim  in 
order  to  wreak  on  him  its  full  vengeance. 

This  is  said,  not  to  encourage  the  Negro  to  shield 
his  victim  from  justice,  nor  in  the  least  to  justify 
it,  but  in  the  interest  of  the  protection  of  society 
against  all  criminals,  no  matter  what  their  color 
or  position  be.  If  it  be  wrong  for  the  Negro  to 
protect  the  criminal,  it  is  equally  so  for  every  other 
to  do  so.  In  any  event,  it  is  the  principle  of  particeps 
criminis.  No  system  of  society  is  safe,  nor  can  it  en- 
dure, where  any  class  is  depressed  and  suppressed  on 


164         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

account  of  any  disorder  or  criminality,  while  another 
is  supported  and  upheld  for  the  same,  the  authorities 
meanwhile  abetting.  These  conditions  in  our  South- 
ern society  cannot  be  condoned.  They  create  a  gap 
that  is  widening  with  time,  and  sooner  or  later,  a 
revolutionary  breach  will  come,  the  consequences  of 
which  we  cannot  possibly  foresee. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WHAT  CAN  BE  DONE  ? 

Up  to  this  time  we  have  been  mainly  concerned 
about  the  difficulties  and  complications  of  the  Negro 
question,  but  no  remedy  directly  for  the  cure  of  the 
malady  has  been  proposed.  Now  and  then  sugges- 
tions have  been  offered  to  meet  the  demands  of  cer- 
tain emergencies,  but  no  general  plan  as  a  practical 
hypothesis  has  been  offered.  That  something  should 
be  done,  the  tension  of  conditions  in  the  South  abun- 
dantly suggests.  That  something  will  have  to  be 
done  sooner  or  later,  all  thinking  persons  readily 
admit.  The  perpetual  presence  of  the  Negro,  the 
certainty  of  his  remaining  in  the  South,  the  steady 
growth  of  the  spirit  of  worth  among  the  aspiring 
ones,  the  struggles  of  so  many  thousands  to  im- 
prove their  condition,  the  weakness  and  criminality 
of  others  on  the  lowest  planes,  the  aversion  with 
which  the  race  is  regarded  by  many  whites,  which 
aversion  springs  chiefly  from  regarding  the  Negro 
from  his  worst  side,  the  disposition  on  the  part  of 
an  irresponsible  minority  to  accord  to  the  Negro 
only  mistreatment  and  cruelty  simply  because  he  is  a 
Negro — all  these  and  other  facts  are  prophetic  of 
future  troubles  to  the  country,  unless  something  be 

165 


166          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

done  by  the  influential  whites  to  relieve  the  situation. 

The  task  is  by  no  means  an  easy  one.  Any  course 
that  might  be  adopted  would  doubtless  be  attended 
with  difficulty;  but  it  is  clear  that  unless  something 
be  done,  the  difficulties  will  thicken  in  the  years  of 
the  future.  The  strain  is  not  relaxed  by  time,  but 
rather  made  the  tauter.  Whatever  is  done  will  have 
to  be  by  the  slow  process  of  propitiating  public  sen- 
timent, which  while  it  may  try  patience,  promises, 
after  all,  the  most  durable  results.  No  sudden  move- 
ment will  avail  anything,  it  must  be  the  work  of 
years.  But  that  there  lies  open  a  course  alike  honor- 
able to  the  white  race,  and  just  to  the  Negro,  every 
one  of  equanimity  of  mind,  breadth  of  observation, 
calmness  of  judgment,  and  Tightness  of  heart  must 
believe.  Many  difficulties  previously  existing  have 
been  minimized ;  lessons  of  vast  and  deep  importance 
have  been  learned  alike  by  the  thoughtful  of  both 
races ;  difficulties  which  at  present  exist  are  now  well 
defined  alike  in  their  nature  and  scope,  and  certain 
obligations  are  recognized  as  imposed,  in  part,  on 
both  races. 

The  Negro  is  not  without  multitudes  of  sympa- 
thetic friends  among  the  high-minded  and  enlight- 
ened people  of  the  South,  who  by  concert  of  action, 
on  the  part  of  even  a  goodly  number,  can  gradually 
succeed  in  convincing,  by  a  policy  of  helpfulness, 
even  many  of  the  most  prejudiced  that  white  ignor- 
ance and  lawlessness  are  just  as  bad  and  dangerous 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         167 

to  the  country  at  large  as  black  ignorance  and  law- 
lessness; that  the  patriotism,  integrity,  ability,  in- 
dustry, usefulness,  thrift,  and  public  spirit  on  the 
part  of  the  Negro,  are  just  as  good  and  are  entitled 
to  as  much  encouragement  and  respect  and  reward 
as  the  capabilities  and  virtues  of  the  same  name 
among  the  whites ;  that  the  rights  of  the  white  man 
are  no  more  sacred  than  those  of  the  black  man, 
and  that  neither  white  nor  black  can  override  the 
rights  of  the  other  without  endangering  his  own. 
These  are  plain  homely  principles,  which  in  a  sea- 
son of  calmness  would  seem  alike  acceptable  to  all. 
A  dispassionate  recognition  of  these,  followed  by  a 
campaign  for  their  practical  expression,  in  deeds, 
would  allay  multitudes  of  existing  differences,  and 
rally  to  the  same  plane  of  action  the  best  of  both 
races.  That  such  cooperation  would  result  in  vast 
good  which,  would  grow  with  the  years,  every  one 
must  see.  To  be  sure,  it  would  encounter  opposi- 
tion, here  and  there,  but  the  agitation  which  would 
result  would  be  wholesome  rather  than  otherwise, 
and  show  the  nature  of  the  opposition  to  be  a  policy 
against  the  public  good.  It  would  awaken  the  in- 
terest of  the  able  press  of  the  South,  the  potency  of 
which  would  be  of  vast  avail.  It  would  direct  the 
attention  of  thousands  to  the  importance  of  a  subject 
about  which,  perhaps,  they  have  thought  but  little. 
But  if  it  should  go  steadily  on,  doing  its  work  with 
tenacity  of  purpose,  the  results  would  be  so  gratify- 


168          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

ing  that  eventually  the  races  would  find  their  rela- 
tions and  adjustments,  and  peace  would  be  as  preva- 
lent as  disorder  now  is. 

Every  thoughtful  person  must  recognize  the  fact 
that  our  Southern  civilization  is  largely  involved  in 
the  treatment  which  we  accord  a  weaker  race  which 
God  has  placed  within  our  hands  as  trustees  for 
their  elevation  and  improvement,  as  well  as  for  His 
glory.  The  fact  of  the  sacredness  of  this  charge  we 
cannot  shun,  even  if  we  would.  To  its  proper  con- 
sideration we  must  sooner  or  later  address  ourselves 
as  patriots  out  of  a  concern  for  future  generations; 
as  philanthropists,  in  the  name  of  a  common  hu- 
manity, and  as  Christians,  from  a  bald  sense  of  duty. 
A  duty  shunned  or  a  duty  delayed  is  a  duty  still. 

Perhaps  we  can  better  arrive  at  a  starting  point 
by  the  presentation  of  an  accepted  principle,  and  one 
which  has  found  expression  in  the  practice  of  years. 
For  many  years  the  different  Christian  denomina- 
tions have  been  sending  missionaries  to  Africa,  as 
well  as  to  other  pagan  lands.  These  denominations 
exercise  the  same  care  with  respect  to  the  mission- 
aries sent  to  the  Dark  Continent  that  is  exercised 
with  respect  to  those  sent  elsewhere.  They  must 
be  men  and  women  of  ability  and  of  adaptability  to 
their  work;  wise  and  intelligent,  and  capable  of 
reaching  and  influencing  a  people  sodden  in  ignor- 
ance and  vice,  and  unacquainted  with  the  sacred 
principles  and  advantages  offered  by  the  gospel. 
These  missionaries  undergo  the  same  investigation 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         169 

as  to  character  and  ability  to  which  others  sent  to 
other  fields  of  the  world  are  subjected.  As  Chris- 
tians, the  duty  of  infusing  the  gospel  into  the  great 
black  mass  of  Africans  is  as  readily  recognized  as 
is  that  of  reaching  and  influencing  the  people  of  any 
other  race  or  any  other  quarter  of  the  globe.  Africa 
is  an  immense  continent  on  which  lives  about  one- 
eighth  of  the  population  of  the  globe,  and  for  almost 
a  century,  from  the  first  missionary  invasion  of  the 
Dark  Continent,  in  1816,  by  Moffatt,  till  the  present, 
this  land  of  darkness  has  claimed  our  attention.  No 
one  asserts  among  Christians  that  because  these  are 
Africans  they  are  not  worthy  of  the  gospel,  nor  does 
any  one  withhold  his  offerings  to  African  missions 
on  that  account. 

A  missionary  from  the  Southern  states,  landing 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  must  take  up  his  abode 
among  these  degraded  pagans,  and  as  a  wise,  con- 
secrated man  of  God,  must  sedulously  study  every 
possible  means  of  reaching  those  people.  He  must 
necessarily  come  in  contact  with  them,  learn  the 
method  of  approaching  them,  and  diligently  seek  a 
basis  of  adjustment  of  himself  to  existing  conditions 
in  order  to  win  them  to  Christ.  Work  like  this  must 
be  unpleasant,  much  duty  is;  it  must  prove  often- 
times difficult,  as  tasks  of  obligation  frequently  are; 
the  efforts  of  the  missionary  must  be  attended  with 
much  repulsiveness  to  a  refined  sense,  offending  ev- 
ery natural  instinct  of  his  cultured  character,  but 
he  is  there  on  a  mission  and  is  constantly  impressed 


170         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN, 

by  an  onerous  sense  of  duty  to  which  all  else  must 
succumb.  What  must  he  do,  and  what  would  we 
expect  of  a  missionary  under  conditions  like  these? 
Repulsive  and  abhorrent  as  these  people  might  be, 
sunken  in  degradation  to  the  lowest  limit  of  morals, 
and  utterly  benighted  to  their  destiny,  the  mission- 
ary must  stoop  to  conquer.  With  keen  penetration 
he  must  watch  for  every  slight  rift  in  the  darkened 
mass  that  he  may  let  in  the  light  of  life.  He  cannot 
scorn  or  repel  them  because  of  their  dark  skins,  their 
filth  and  squalor;  in  spite  of  these  and  all  else,  he 
must  set  himself  to  win  them.  He  cannot  by  any 
force  of  authority  compel  them  to  accept  the  religion 
which  elevates  and  saves;  he  must  by  patience  and 
condescension  to  their  needs  win  their  confidence  as 
the  first  step  toward  winning  them  to  God.  Nor  can 
he  reach  them  by  a  denunciation  of  their  vices,  or 
convert  them  by  a  display  of  aversion  to  them  be- 
cause of  their  inferior  moral  status.  He  cannot 
produce  the  slightest  impression  by  leading  them 
to  infer  that  because  they  are  what  they  are,  they 
are  worthy  only  to  be  cast  out  as  unworthy.  His 
must  be  a  persuasive  mood,  one  of  adjustment  to  a 
people  who  know  not  God,  and  to  these  all  else  must 
bend.  It  doing  this  the  missionary  would  not  be 
regarded  as  surrendering  his  refinement,  his  ideas 
of  genuine  life  as  he  knows  it,  but  as  retaining  all 
these  while  doing  the  rest.  Nor  is  this  an  exagger- 
ated statement  of  a  situation  which  has  become  com- 
mon in  Africa. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         171 

Now,  instead  of  that  condition,  let  us  suppose  an- 
other of  equal  practicalness.  Let  us  suppose  that  a 
segment  of  the  population  of  Africa,  numbering 
several  million,  is  brought  to  our  American  shores 
and  assigned  to  a  stipulated  portion  of  our  territory. 
They  are  pagans  still,  equally  as  degraded  and  sunk- 
en as  those  left  in  distant  Africa.  In  an  event  like 
this,  American  Christians  would  be  criminally  amiss 
to  duty  did  they  not  send  among  these  sable  savages 
men  and  women  to  win  them  to  righteousness.  A 
colony  like  the  one  supposed  would  be  a  challenge 
to  American  Christians  so  soon  as  they  touched  our 
borders.  That  which  the  missionary  does  on  the 
Dark  Continent  would  have  to  be  done  in  this  im- 
ported population  in  America.  The  same  studious 
consideration  of  the  demands  of  the  situation,  the 
same  diligent  observation  of  methods  to  be  em- 
ployed, the  same  adaptation  to  prevailing  conditions. 
There  would  be  apparently  insuperable  barriers  to  be 
broken  down,  numerous  and  formidable  difficulties 
to  be  overcome,  and  discouragement  on  discourage- 
ment to  be  constantly  met ;  but  duty  would  meet  all 
these  with  a  courageous  front,  and  the  missionary 
among  these  imported  pagans  would  press  on  in  his 
work.  Whether  there  were  immediate  visible  signs 
of  encouragement  or  not,  he  would  persist  in  his  en- 
deavors, for  to  surrender  would  be  to  deny  the  effi- 
cacy of  the  gospel  to  dissolve  all  moral  difficulty. 

But  in  the  presence  of  a  concrete  condition  we  are 
left  neither  to  supposition  nor  theory.  Here  are 


172         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

the  Africans  at  our  doors.  Here  they  are  by  mil- 
lions. How  they  came  to  be  here  is  well  known. 
While  they  have  been  the  recipients  of  certain  advan- 
tages, it  is  well  known  what  they  have  undergone. 
Their  history  in  America  has  been  one  of  long  en- 
slavement, of  irksome  servitude,  and  of  restricted 
privilege.  Of  the  result  of  these  the  white  race  has 
been  the  abundant  recipient.  Without  any  direct  in- 
strumentality of  their  own,  the  Negro  in  America 
has  been  brought  into  peculiar  relations  with  the 
white  race,  and  into  such  relations  as  impose  onerous 
obligations  on  the  stronger  people.  These  obliga- 
tions spring  from  several  grounds,  among  which 
is  that  of  gratitude  for  that  which  the  Negro  has 
done  for  the  enrichment  of  the  country,  and  the  ele- 
vation of  the  stronger  race  by  the  means  afforded 
by  the  Negro  for  such  elevation.  Independent  of 
this,  and  even  had  it  not  occurred,  would  be  the 
ground  of  philanthropy,  because  of  the  condition  of 
the  race.  In  addition,  still,  would  be  the  demand 
of  humanity  because  of  the  racial  relation^  Then, 
there  is  the  ground  of  chivalry  because  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  stronger  to  the  weaker,  and  last  of  all 
would  be  the  ground  of  Christianity  because  of  the 
obligation  everywhere  imposed  on  that  system  to 
raise  the  fallen. 

By  these  conditions  and  obligations  are  we  today 
confronted.  They  are  inexorable  principles  to 
which  we  dare  not  close  our  ears  and  eyes.  Nor 
are  they  to  be  dismissed  by  subtlety  of  reas- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          173 

oning  or  by  the  makeshift  of  excuse.  We  can  no 
more  reason  them  out  of  existence  than  we  can 
shovel  darkness  out  of  an  unlighted  room.  This 
duty,  these  facts,  these  principles,  we  must  meet  as 
men  and  as  Christians.  To  deny  them  does  not  re- 
move the  obligation.  The  white  race  is  the  creator 
of  the  present  situation,  is  responsible  for  it  as  the 
original  importers  of  the  black  man  to  America,  and 
on  him  is  imposed  the  duty  of  relieving  the  situation. 
However,  this  burden  is  greatly  relieved  by  many 
encouraging  conditions.  In  dealing  with  the  Negro 
as  he  is,  he  deals  not  with  a  pagan.  He  does  not 
have  to  study  his  approaches  to  the  heart  and  mind 
of  the  Negro.  He  knows  him  at  his  best,  at  his 
worst.  Conditions  are  well  defined.  He  under- 
stands his  weakness  as  he  does  his  strength.  He 
understands  the  Negro's  habits  and  the  means  of 
reaching  and  of  influencing  him.  The  gateways  to 
his  nature  lie  open.  Many  thousands  of  Negroes  are 
Christians.  Other  thousands  of  them  have  climbed 
high  up  the  ladder  of  our  splendid  American  civiliza- 
tion. Multitudes  of  them  are  intelligent,  thrifty, 
progressive,  wide-awake  in  the  production  of  pros- 
perity, laborious,  useful  in  thousands  of  ways,  while 
other  multitudes  of  them  need  just  the  aid  and  en- 
couragement which  the  whites  only  can  give.  If 
duty  respecting  this  people  is  inexorable,  it  is  stimu- 
lated by  many  elements  of  encouragement.  In  any 
effort  to  aid  and  to  elevate,  the  two  higher  classes 
would  prove  invaluable  allies  in  assisting  in  the  ele- 


174         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

vation  of  the  lower  elements  of  the  race  to  a  higher 
plane  of  life.  Was  ever  Christianity  confronted  by 
an  obligation  plainer?  Was  ever  a  vaster  field 
opened  to  philanthropy?  Was  ever  Christian  duty 
more  suggestive  and  urgent? 

There  is  not  the  smallest  doubt,  even  for  a  mo- 
ment, on  the  part  of  those  who  know  the  Negro,  that 
the  two  higher  classes  of  blacks  would  respond  most 
readily  to  any  effort  made  to  elevate  the  Negro  race. 
They  would  account  it  a  privilege  to  make  any  pos- 
sible sacrifice  for  the  attainment  of  this  end.  The 
mere  fact  that  the  white  race  would  enter  on  a  cam- 
paign like  this  would  rally  every  worthy  Negro  to 
its  support.  Negroes  are  a  responsive  people,  and 
in  the  light  of  the  experience  of  late  years,  they 
would  be  doubly  so  now.  This  fact  strengthens  the 
obligation  to  assist  them  to  better  things  in  life. 
Should  a  policy  like  this  be  entered  on  what  would 
be  the  result  ?  It  would  allay  differences  which  now 
operate  to  the  detriment  of  both  races  by  the 
estrangement  occasioned  and  the  bitterness  engen- 
dered ;  it  would  weld  into  cooperation  the  best  forces 
of  both  races,  which  in  itself  would  constitute  a 
condition  of  confidence  and  harmony  which  does  not 
now  exist,  and  this  without  the  impairment  of  the 
segregation  of  the  races,  which  is  much  desired  on 
the  part  of  the  better  blacks  as  it  is  by  the  better 
whites;  while  the  boundaries  of  cooperative  effort 
would  touch  at  many  points,  it  would  not  mean 
racial  fusion;  it  would  prove  mutually  beneficial  to 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         175 

both  races,  by  lifting  the  colored  race  up  to  a  plane 
of  merit,  while  it  would  make  the  white  man  better 
for  the  effort  thus  made;  it  would  level  the  existing 
barriers  in  the  highway  of  prosperity,  dismiss  the 
apprehensions  which  haunt  the  future,  and  illustrate 
anew  the  prowess  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  grappling 
with  a  difficult  situation  and  in  conquering  it.  All  this 
is  possible,  and  while  it  would  require  years  in  order 
to  reach  a  gratifying  consummation,  it  can  be  ac- 
complished. The  identity  of  interest  would  come  to 
be  recognized,  and  the  Negro  would  prove  to  be  the 
best  friend  the  white  man  has.  Among  all  the  col- 
ored races  he  is  today  the  white  man's  best  friend. 

A  policy  like  this  would  be  in  thorough  accord 
with  the  spirit  of  the  times.  We  are  living  in  a  pe- 
culiar period.  It  is  a  juncture  of  eras.  It  is  a  period 
of  transition  from  the  old  to  the  new.  Old  habitudes 
of  thought,  old  customs,  old  systems,  all  the  beaten 
paths  of  policy  and  of  custom  are  being  abandoned 
for  a  sphere  that  is  new.  It  is  a  breaking-up  period. 
The  crash  of  old  orders  is  heard  throughout  the 
world,  and  a  new  system  is  being  ushered  in.  In  all 
this,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  leading.  His  ideas  of  right 
and  of  liberty  are  transforming  the  world.  Wher- 
ever he  plants  his  flag,  prosperity  blooms  and 
fruits.  The  world  is  in  the  throes  of  a  tremendous 
upheaval.  While  views  are  shifting  and  sentiments 
are  changing,  principles  which  never  change  are  as- 
suming new  phases.  Back  of  all  this  are  the  dy- 
namic principles  which  the  Nazarene  came  to  ex- 


176         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

pound  to  the  nations  and  generations  of  men. 
Christianity  exalts,  and  as  the  dynamic  force  of  the 
ages,  it  has  raised  man  to  a  higher  level  by  successive 
revolution.  It  has  brought  us  face  to  face  with  an 
opportunity  which  no  nation  has  hitherto  enjoyed — 
that  of  elevating  a  race  and  of  making  it  capable 
of  becoming  a  mighty  factor  in  a  land  to  which  that 
race  is  as  loyal  as  the  most  patriotic  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon.  In  a  period  like  this,  when  human  liberty 
and  rights  are  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  men  every- 
where, the  opportunity  is  afforded  of  according  to 
the  imported  African  the  merits  of  his  just  deserts. 
The  Negro  is  human,  he  is  a  man,  and  as  such  we 
must  deal  with  him.  Preconceived  notions  and  opin- 
ions, prejudices  previously  formed,  and  all  else,must 
yield  to  the  demand  of  duty — duty  between  man  and 
man. 

We  have  the -situation  before  us.  What  is  our 
duty  to  the  Negro  race ?  What  can  be  done?  What 
should  be  done?  The  Negro  craves  not  pity,  he 
pleads  not  helplessness — all  that  lie  asks  is  that  which 
is  due  him  as  a  man.  That  he  should  do  this  is  to 
his  credit,  and  instead  of  exciting  opposition  should 
command  our  respect  the  more.  He  asks  that  the 
circumscriptions  which  have  so  long  operated  to  the 
cramp  of  his  powers  be  removed  that  he  may  be  able 
to  stand  on  his  feet  and  vindicate  his  claim  to  genu- 
ine manhood.  He  desires  not  to  be  fondled  and 
cajoled,  but  that  he  be  unfettered  to  join  in  the  rough 
encounters  of  the  world.  He  insists  not  that  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         177 

stronger  race  give  him  a  fish,  but  only  a  hook.  Not 
till  the  Negro  proves  utterly  unworthy,  not  till  he 
becomes  a  loathesome  burden  too  heavy  to  be  borne, 
should  we  talk  of  his  repudiation.  Certainly  not 
while  he  strikes  out  with  the  boldness  with  which 
he  has  done  to  help  to  overcome  the  difficulties  which 
encumber  his  people,  should  he  have  other  than 
words  of  cheer  and  inspiration,  and  the  moral  sup- 
port of  his  brother  in  white.  While  the  Negro  has 
never  been  without  his  friends,  both  South  and 
North,  the  question  is,  Why  should  not  all  alike  be 
his  friends?  It  is  well  known  that  the  blunders  of 
the  reconstruction  period  were  not  his,  but  those 
of  men  who  were  actuated  by  self-aggrandizement. 
Of  this  not  a  few  of  them  learned  after  it  was  too 
late.*  Betrayed  into  this  condition,  he  should  not 
be  held  entirely  responsible,  and  certainly  this  should 
not  be  charged  against  him  now.  If  some  are  crim- 
inals, they  deserve  to  be  dealt  with  as  common 
criminals,  with  all  that  belongs  to  such.  Even 

*In  the  History  of  the  Last  Quarter  Century,  by  E.  Benja- 
min Andrews,  he  furnishes  the  following  extract  from  a  letter 
written  by  the  colored  senator  from  Mississippi,  Hon.  Hiram 
R.  Revels,  to  President  Grant,  in  the  early  70s,  which  il- 
lustrates the  conditions  in  the  South  at  that  time.  The  extract 
is  as  follows : 

"Since  reconstruction  the  masses  of  people  have  been,  as 
it  were,  enslaved  in  mind  by  unprincipled  adventurers.  A 
great  portion  of  them  have  learned  that  they  were  being 
used  as  mere  tools,  and  determined  by  casting  their  ballots 
against  these  unprincipled  adventurers  to  overthrow  them. 
The  bitterness  and  hate  created  by  the  late  civil  strife  (local 
troubles  in  Mississippi)  have,  in  my  opinion,  been  obliterated 
in  this  State,  except,  perhaps  in  some  localities,  and  would 
have  long  since  been  effaced  were  it  not  for  some  unprin- 


i;8          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

criminals  have  rights  in  a  democracy.  Nor  should 
the  entire  race  have  laid  at  its  door  the  crimes  of 
the  few.  Is  there  nothing  worthy  of  a  multitudinous 
race  that  can  be  done  by  the  stronger  race  of  Anglo- 
Saxons  ? 

Since  near  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
which  signally  marks  a  period  when  the  humanitar- 
ian idea  began  to  take  hold  on  men,  and  which  found 
expression  in  various  organizations  and  through 
the  medium  of  literature  at  a  later  time,  there  have 
sprung  up  movements  for  the  amelioration  of  the 
human  family.  One  of  the  first  organizations  which 
sprang  from  this  spirit  was  one  which  was  called 
the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge, 
and  later  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  Crude  and  cumbersome 
as  these  original  humanitarian  organizations  were, 
they  wrought  a  mighty  work  for  good,  and  opened 
the  way  for  the  great  missionary  organizations 
throughout  the  world. 

Could  there  be  begun  in  these  American  states  a 
society  for  the  promotion  of  the  good  of  the  Negro, 
which  could  be  so  directed  as  to  reach  him  at  every 

cipled  men  who  would  keep  alive  the  bitterness  of  the  past 
and  inculcate  a  hatred  between  the  races  in  order  that  they 
may  aggrandize  themselves  by  office  and  its  emoluments  to 
control  my  people,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  degrade  them. 
If  the  State  administration  had  advanced  patriotic  measures, 
appointed  only  honest  and  competent  men  to  office,  and 
sought  to  restore  confidence  between  the  races,  bloodshed 
would  have  been  unknown,  peace  would  have  prevailed, 
Federal  inteference  been  unthouptit  of,  and  harmony,  friend- 
ship, and  mutual  confidence  would  have  taken  the  place  of 
the  bayonet." 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          179 

point  of  his  life,  socially,  industrially,  commercially, 
educationally,  benevolently,  and  morally,  what  a 
mighty  transformation  might  be  wrought  in  these 
American  states !  Much  has  been  done  for  the  Ne- 
gro's education,  and  all  hail  to  the  philanthropists 
who  have  rendered  such  aid,  yet  it  has  been  of  a 
fractional  sort,  and  by  piecemeal,  each  working  in 
its  own  way.  Could  there  be  such  a  combination  of 
effort  as  would  resolve  all  others  into  unity  and  un- 
der separate  divisions  or  departments,  directed  from 
a  common  center,  a  few  years  would  witness  a  tre- 
mendous change  in  the  country.  A  movement  like 
this  would  acquaint  the  world  with  the  growing 
worth  of  the  Negro,  and  his  merits  would  be  as  well 
known  as  his  crimes  and  short-comings  now  are. 
This  would  require  management  and  direction  of  a 
colossal  character,  but  of  no  greater  proportions  than 
are  some  of  the  mammoth  commercial  organizations 
now  existing.  It  would  mark  a  new  era  in  the  prog- 
ress of  Anglo-Saxonism,  and  of  the  refluent  conse- 
quences on  the  fatherland  of  the  Negro,  none  could 
tell.  More  than  anything  else,  it  would  lead  to  the 
Christianization  of  Africa,  as  well  as  other  regions 
where  the  habitats  of  the  Negro  are  over  the  habit- 
able globe.  It  would  infuse  fresh  life  into  the  Negro 
population  of  the  American  states,  and  prove  not 
alone  a  blessing  to  the  African-American,  but  would 
be  far-reaching  in  its  effects  over  the  world. 

It  would  set  an  educative  example  to  other  peo- 
ples of  the  world,  and  the  moral  influence  would  be 


n8o         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

unspeakable.  Christianity  has  an  opportunity  in  the 
present  status  of  the  Negro  race  in  America  such  as 
it  has  rarely  enjoyed  since  its  introduction  to  the 
world.  The  Negro  can  survive  in  regions  in  which 
the  white  man  cannot.  He  .could  take  with  him  to 
Africa  and  other  regions  where  the  Negro  lives,  a 
knowledge  of  the  civilization  of  which  he  has  been 
made  a  beneficiary  in  America,  and  along  with  this 
would  be  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel.  In  the  midst 
of  the  great  world  movements  of  the  present,  none 
would  eclipse  a  movement  like  this. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SOURCES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT. 

It  is  admitted  that  if  the  Negro  had  remained  a 
leaden  mass,  cold,  inflexible,  inanimate,  after  his 
emergence  from  slavery,  there  would  now  be  but 
slight  hope  and  little  encouragement  to  assist  him 
to  reach  higher  levels  in  life.  But  this  is  far  from 
being  true.  While  some  are  indolent  and  even 
worthless,  hundreds  of  thousands  have  met  the  diffi- 
culties which  have  beset  them,  at  every  step,  and 
with  a  grim  determination  worthy  of  any  race,  have 
made  remarkable  progress.  It  is  easy  to  decry  an 
entire  race  because  of  the  worthlessness  of  the  few, 
but  sheer  justice  demands  that  honor  be  accorded  to 
whom  it  is  due. 

In  urging  the  claims  of  the  Negro  race  on  the 
Christian  philanthropy  of  the  American  states,  in 
the  chapter  immediately  preceding,  there  were  pre- 
sented supposed  cases  in  missionary  endeavor  both 
with  respect  to  work  among  the  pagans  on  the  Dark 
Continent  and  those  who  might  have  been  landed  on 
our  own  shores.  Instead  of  encountering  the  cor- 
rupt paganism  in  Africa,  suppose  the  missionary 
should  find  that  a  majority  of  the  people  could  read 
and  write,  and  that  among  them  were  orators,  edu- 
cators, editors,  ministers  of  the  gospel,  lawyers, 

181 


182          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

druggists,  artisans,  skilled  mechanics,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  various  crafts  of  civilization.  Sup- 
pose, too,  he  should  find  millions  of  Christians  with 
thousands  of  houses  of  worship,  devoted  to  the 
propagation  of  the  true  religion,  would  he  not  hail  a 
condition  like  this  with  joy?  Would  this  not  be 
true  concerning  any  people  among  whom  missionary 
endeavor  was  made? 

This  is  true  concerning  the  Negro  in  America.  In 
view  of  these  facts,  it  may  be  said  that  if  any  people 
have  ever  won  the  consideration  of  a  Christian  na- 
tion, the  American  Negro  has,  because  of  his  efforts 
under  disadvantages  the  greatest,  and  because  of  the 
success  which  he  has  been  enabled  to  achieve.  Lying 
back  of  present  conditions,  it  should  not  be  lost  sight 
of  that  the  Negro  is  at  least  worthy  of  our  gratitude 
because  of  his  centuries  of  unrewarded  toil,  but  es- 
pecially since  his  freedom,  has  the  Negro  proved  his 
worth  by  his  struggles  to  ascend  to  the  highest  at- 
tainment possible,  and  that,  too,  in  the  face  of  giant 
difficulties  which  he  has  mastered,  and  mastered  in 
spite  of  every  possible  handicap.  A  situation  like 
this  affords  a  broad  basis  of  encouragement  and 
hopefulness. 

That  a  movement  similar  to  the  one  already  named 
in  behalf  of  the  entire  race  of  Negroes  would  elicit 
fresh  energy  on  the  part  of  the  race  in  rts  own  be- 
half, and,  in  turn,  stimulate  it  to  newer  exertion, 
seems  certain  from  our  knowledge  of  the  Negro. 
Instead  of  creating  undue  assertion  on  the  part  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          183 

the  Negro,  as  some  are  disposed  to  think,  it  would 
beget  an  humble  gratitude,  and  immensely  relax  the 
strained  relations  between  the  two  races,  white  and 
black.  By  the  Negro  it  would  be  hailed  as  an  omen 
of  better  things,  and  as  an  advent  of  conditions  that 
would  restore  confidence  and  a  spirit  of  restfulness, 
In  view  of  a  prospect  like  this,  there  is  the  amplest 
encouragement  for  action.  Unless  there  be  a  desire 
for  a  continuation  of  racial  tension  and  a  perpetua- 
tion of  conditions  that  will  be  productive  of  race  dis- 
harmony, some  movement  for  the  relief  of  the  pres- 
ent situation  will  have  to  be  inaugurated  which  will 
guarantee  protection  to  the  Negro,  and  afford  such 
aid  as  will  enable  him  to  become  of  the  greatest  pos- 
sible advantage  to  himself  and  to  the  country  at 
large.  Rancor  and  prejudice  are  the  teeth  of  drag- 
ons the  harvests  of  which  will  produce  fresher  and 
graver  problems  for  other  generations  to  solve.  To 
adopt  a  course  which  will  gradually  propitiate  public 
sentiment  is  the  policy  wisdom  would  now  recom- 
mend, prudence  suggest,  and  sanity  dictate.  Present 
troubles  will  not  be  relieved  by  delay,  but  fostered 
the  rather,  and  in  dispassionate  conduct,  in  the  crea- 
tion of  mutual  confidence,  lies  our  only  hope.  We 
may  enact  drastic  legislation  for  the  control  of  the 
Negro,  but  what  then?  That  only  means  the  culti- 
vation of  a  new  crop  of  criminals,  who  in  a  desperate 
and  hardened  condition  are  turned  loose  anew  on 
society,  to  foster  fresh  crimes  and  perpetrate  new 
deeds  of  wrong.  What  would  be  the  consequence 


184          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

of  that  condition?  The  lawless  Negro  invites' coun- 
ter lawlessness  on  the  part  of  the  white  man,  and 
demoralization,  in  divers  forms,  becomes  a  routine  in 
every  Southern  community. 

Looking  further  into  the  sources  of  encourage- 
ment, we  find  certain  other  auguries  of  inspiration. 
In  an  impoverished  condition,  the  Negro  emerged, 
in  1865,  from  slavery,  and  unmurmuringly  faced  the 
future.  His  has  been  a  steadily  and  laboriously  up- 
ward climb.  While  some  other  races  would  have 
disintegrated  under  the  stress  and  strain,  the  Negro 
has  continued  to  multiply.  Within  fifteen  years  after 
the  advent  of  freedom,  the  Negroes  had  increased 
from  4,550,000  to  6,580,793,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  or  by  1900,  the  increase  was  34.2 
per  cent,  or  8,833,944.  The  next  census  will  reveal 
that  the  Negro  race  has  gone  to  10,000,000,  or  about 
one-eighth  of  the  population  of  the  country.  Negroes 
have  thriven  and  increased  in  spite  of  the  innumer- 
able disadvantages  encountered.  The  Negro  race 
is  virile,  prolific,  and  flexible,  and  responds  in  ad- 
justment to  all  conditions,  but  all  the  while  it  mul- 
tiplies. 

What  progress  has  the  race  made  meanwhile? 
Within  twenty-five  years  after  emancipation  this 
penniless  population  of  ignorant  blacks,  though 
meeting  opposition  at  every  step  of  the  way,  had 
reached  that  stage  of  progress  that  372,414  had  come 
to  own  homes  of  their  own,  and  4,000,000  of  them 
were  engaged  in  profitable  vocations,  34  per  cent  of 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         185 

whom  were  agricultural  laborers,  farmers  and  over- 
seers. Among  these  were  those  of  such  exceptional 
ability  and  management,  that,  beginning  as  share 
tenants,  they  became  cash  tenants,  then  partly  own- 
ers of  property,  and  finally  complete  owners.  The 
merit  of  such  progress  becomes  more  conspicuous 
when. we  bear  in  mind  that  thirty-five  years  before, 
they  were  ignorant  and  poverty-stricken,  and  in  the 
struggle  to  accumulate,  they  had  met  with  the  might- 
iest of  disadvantages. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900,  or  thirty-five 
years  after  the  dawn  of  freedom,  the  Negroes  had 
acquired  in  the  South  Central  States  95,624  farms, 
while  the  tenants  of  land  numbered  348,805,  or  21.5 
per  cent  of  all  the  farms  within  that  group  of  states. 
Within  the  same  period  of  thirty-five  years,  the  Ne- 
groes in  the  South  Atlantic  States  had  acquired 
287,933  farms,  of  which  number  70.4  were  tenants, 
and  29.6  were  owners  outright.  Yet  three  and  a 
half  decades  before  not  one  of  these  in  either  of  the 
group  of  states  named,  owned  an  inch  of  land  or  a 
dollar  in  money.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the 
growth  of  land  owners  among  the  Negroes,  within 
the  same  period  of  years,  was  three-fourths  as  rapid 
as  the  relative  number  of  owners  among  the  whites. 
The  total  value  of  Negro  farm  property  in  the  group 
already  named  amounted  to  $300,000,000,  and  in- 
cluding improvements,  it  amounted  to  $350,000,000, 
to  which  when  the  valuation  of  implements  and  live 
stock  are  added  approximate  in  value  $500,000,000. 


186          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

Ten  years  ago,  or  when  the  last  national  census 
was  taken,  there  were  in  Virginia  26,566  Negro 
land  owners;  in  Mississippi,  21,973;  in  Texas, 
20,139;  in  South  Carolina,  18,970;  in  North  Caro- 
lina, 17,520;  in  Alabama,  14,110;  in  Arkansas, 
11,941;  in  Georgia,  11,375;  m  Tennessee,  9,426; 
in  Louisiana  9,371 ;  in  Florida,  6,552;  in  Kentucky, 
5,402;  in  Maryland,  2,262;  in  West  Virginia,  534; 
in  Delaware,  332,  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  5. 

Nor  does  this  list  include  real  estate  owned  in  the 
towns  and  cities,  in  which  there  are  thousands  of 
establishments  of  business,  including  stores,  offices, 
banks,  office  buildings,  residences  for  rent,  hotels, 
churches,  and  much  else.  This  represents  the  prop- 
erty showing  of  the  Negro  ten  years  ago,  and  his 
holdings  have  rapidly  increased  since  that  time.  If 
so  much  was  done  during  the  first  generation  fol- 
lowing the  year  of  emancipation,  when  the  Negro 
was  deficient  in  intelligence,  wisdom,  experience,  and 
forethought,  what  may  we  reasonably  expect  of  him 
within  the  next  generation? 

Widely  scattered  through  the  states  of  the  South, 
this  progress  has  gone  quietly  on,  and  so  quietly, 
that  to  many  it  was  an  occasion  of  surprise  when 
the  census  reports  were  published.  While  unaware 
of  these  facts,  the  public  was  duly  informed  of  the 
faults  and  crimes  of  the  worst  class  of  Negroes,  as 
these  expressions  of  lawlessness  were  exploited  in 
the  public  prints  of  the  country.  This  suggests  the 
fact  that  if  the  merits  of  the  worthy  Negroes  were 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          187 

as  well  known  as  the  crimes  of  the  few,  and  they  the 
worst,  the  sentiment  of  the  public  concerning  the  col- 
ored race  would  be  vastly  different.  It  is  an  unfor- 
tunate fact  that  one  of  the  principal  assets  of  the 
race  question  is  that  of  the  mutual  ignorance  of  both 
races  concerning  one  another.  The  gravest  of  ques- 
tions before  the  American  public  is  the  one  about 
which  least  is  known. 

The  educational  strides  made  by  the  Negro  are 
as  astonishing  as  are  those  made  in  material  prog- 
ress. Among  the  commendable  aspirations  of  the 
Negro  is  that  of  the  acquisition  of  an  education. 
The  sacrifices  made  by  Negro  parents  for  the  edu- 
cation of  their  children  are  alike  pathetic  and  praise- 
worthy. In  consequence  of  this,  illiteracy  among 
Negroes  has  annually  declined.  In  1880,  of  the 
Negro  population  above  ten  years  of  age,  70  per 
cent  was  illiterate.  By  the  end  of  the  next  decade, 
or  in  1890,  this  illiteracy  had  been  reduced  to  57.1 
per  cent,  and  by  the  close  of  the  century  it  was  re 
duced  to  44.5  per  cent.  During  the  last  ten  yearx 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  was  an  increase  of 
the  Negro  population  of  1,087,000  in  the  school  age 
of  ten  years  and  over;  yet,  despite  this  increase, 
there  was  a  decrease  of  illiteracy  of  190,000.  This 
tells  the  story  of  pinched  livelihoods,  untold  sacri- 
fice, frugality,  struggle  and  aspiration.  These  facts 
lie  within  the  realm  of  unwritten  history,  but  the 
aggregation  of  dry  figures  means  much  of  which 
the  world  can  never  know.  If  so  much  has  been 


188         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

done  in  the  face  of  discouragement  by  the  Negro, 
what  might  have  been  accomplished  had  the  condi- 
tions been  the  opposite? 

From  some  to  whom  these  facts  are  known,  have 
come  the  suggested  apprehension  of  that  which  is 
popularly  known  as  Negro  supremacy.  Such  a  sug- 
gestion is  unworthy  the  Caucasian.  To  quote  the 
language  of  another  Southerner:  "The  old  cry 
that  'white  supremacy'  may  be  imperilled  is  a  trav- 
esty of  Anglo-Saxon  chivalry.  With  every  execu- 
tive, judicial,  and  legislative  office  of  the  state  in  the 
hands  of  the  white  people,  and  with  suffrage  qualifi- 
cations that  have  practically  eliminated  the  Negro 
from  political  affairs,  the  old  slogan  is  the  emptiest 
cant. 

"This  is  no  question  for  small  politicians,  but  for 
broad,  patriotic  statesmen.  It  is  not  one  for  non- 
resident theorists,  but  for  practical  publicists;  not 
one  for  academic  sentimentalists,  but  one  for  clear- 
visioned  humanitarians.  On  a  subject  of  such  vital 
concern  to  state  and  nation,  passionate  declamation 
and  partisan  denunciation  are  to  be  deplored.  Oh, 
that  some  patriot  may  arise,  with  the  prescience  of 
a  statesman  and  the  vision  of  a  prophet  and  the  soul 
of  an  apostle,  who  will  point  out  the  path  of  a  na- 
tional duty,  and  guide  our  people  to  a  wise  and 
heaven-approved  solution  of  this  mighty  problem."* 

*From  an  address  delivered  by  Bishop  Charles  B.  Gallo- 
way, of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Seventh  Annual  Conference  for  Education  in  the  South,  Bir- 
mingham, Ala.,  April  26,  1904. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          189 

Nothing  can  be  effected  by  constant  ill  speaking 
against  the  Negro,  and  by  an  underestimate  of  his 
worth.  If  we  are  ever  to  begin  the  solution  of  the 
Negro  question  it  must  start  by  shifting  prejudice  to 
a  basis  of  recognized  obligation  of  duty  to  him  as  a 
man,  and  of  right  and  justice  to  him  in  the  spheres 
in  which  he  moves.  To  speak  of  expediency  as  a 
course  to  be  pursued  is  to  ignore  these  fundamental 
ethical  grounds,  unless,  indeed,  we  bear  in  mind 
that  principle  is  the  path  of  highest  expediency. 
When  ten  million  Ethiopians  in  these  American 
states  stretch  forth  their  hands  to  the  Christians  of 
America,  what  reply  will  they  make?  When  they 
ask  for  aid  will  we  reply  with  a  taunt  or  a  blow? 
When  they  endeavor  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  being, 
will  we  seek  to  repel  them?  When  they  aspire  to 
worth,  shall  we  close  to  them  the  door  of  opportu- 
nity? When  by  sacrifice  and  painful  effort,  in  the 
face  of  fierce  competition,  they  qualify  themselves 
for  efficient  service,  shall  they  be  regarded  as  rivals, 
and  be  driven  out  of  legitimate  pursuits? 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  early  part  of 
the  year  1909,  there  was  a  strike  of  remonstrance 
on  the  part  of  the  white  engineers  on  the  Georgia 
Railroad  because  the  management  of  that  corpora- 
tion was  seeking  to  "place  them  on  the  same  equality 
with  the  Negro."  The  demand  was  extended  so  as 
to  embrace  the  idea  that  the  Negro  firemen  be  elimi- 
nated and  stipulated  for  other  minor  concessions. 
Not  a  little  violence  of  divers  sorts  followed,  and 


190          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

for  weeks,  the  entire  country  was  engrossed  with 
the  affair.  That  this  should  have  occurred  in 
Georgia,  which  had  so  long  been  considered  one  of 
the  most  conservative  states  of  the  South,  and  that 
it  should  have  come  so  soon  after  the  notorious  out- 
break in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  lent  increased  interest 
to  the  matter.  As  a  result  of  the  strike,  violence 
was  visited  on  not  a  few  colored  men,  the  trains 
were  stopped,  the  mails  ceased,  general  business  was 
interfered  with,  provisions  became  scarce  along  the 
road,  and  general  disorder  prevailed. 

After  weeks  of  disturbance,  it  was  agreed  to  sub- 
mit the  question  in  dispute,  for  settlement,  to  a 
board  of  arbitration  composed  of  Chancellor  David 
C.  Barrow,  of  the  University  of  Georgia;  Hon. 
Hilary  A.  Herbert,  secretary  of  the  navy  under 
Cleveland,  and  Hon.  T.  W.  Hardwick,  congressman 
from  Augusta,  who  represented  the  firemen.  The 
decision  of  the  board  was  just  and  equitable,  it  being 
that  the  railroad  shall  be  allowed  to  employ  Negro 
firemen  whenever  the  same  are  qualified  to  render 
efficient  service,  and  that  the  wages  of  the  Negroes 
thus  employed  shall  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  whites 
for  the  same  character  of  service.  The  proceedings 
of  the  board  thus  appointed  were  watched  with  keen 
interest  throughout,  and  when  the  final  decision  was 
announced,  the  expressions  which  came  from  the 
press  of  the  country  showed  not  alone  the  interest 
felt  in  the  matter,  but  voiced  a  sentiment  that  was 
gratifying,  and  disclosed  the  latent  thought  of  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          191 

public  concerning  the  Negro,  South,  as  well  as 
North.  Some  of  those  expressions  are  given  here 
to  show  the  sentiment  concerning  the  Negro,  not 
only,  but  within  these  expressions  of  opinion  are 
indications  of  conditions  which  if  marshalled  and 
organized  would  settle  many  elements  in  the  much- 
vexed  race  question.  The  extracts  are  furnished 
from  some  of  the  representative  papers  of  the  South 
as  well  as  of  the  North. 

The  Columbia  (S.  C.)  State  commended  the 
action  of  the  board,  and  then  proceeded  to  say: 
"To  have  decided  against  the  right  of  the  Negro 
firemen  to  make  a  living,  to  have  yielded  to  the  un- 
reasonable and  selfish  and  prejudiced  demands  of 
the  white  firemen  of  the  Georgia  Railroad,  to  have 
yielded  the  crucial  point  of  justice  and  right,  would 
have  been  nothing  less  than  a  calamity,  not  only  to 
Georgia  but  to  the  South." 

From  another  point  of  view  is  the  question  con- 
sidered by  the  Chattanooga  (Tenn.)  Times,  which 
insisted  that  the  decision  "means  that  in  view  of  the 
most  influential  leaders  among  Southern  men,  the 
Negro  shall  have  a  right  to  earn  a  living  in  the 
South  in  any  sphere  of  manual  or  technical  labor  for 
which  he  may  be  fit." 

The  Augusta  (Ga.)  Chronicle,  which  was  on  the 
scene  of  the  disturbance,  takes  a  more  comprehen- 
sive view  of  the  situation.  It  said :  "Inasmuch  as 
the  Negro  constitutes  the  bulk  of  the  South's  labor- 
ing population,  to  take  away  from  him  the  right  to 


192          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

labor — 'side  by  side  with  the  white  man' — when 
necessary,  would  place  the  heaviest  possible  handi- 
cap upon  the  South  itself ;  for  it  would  not  only  have 
a  surplus  of  idle  'Negroes  to  contend  with,  but  a 
scarcity  of  labor  in  all  industrial  pursuits." 

Other  southern  papers  were  equally  as  pro- 
nounced, but  these  are  furnished  as  fair  samples 
of  Southern  sentiment  regarding  the  Negroes  in  this 
unnatural  and  unjustified  revolt. 

Turning  now  to  the  North,  quotations  are  made 
from  some  of  the  leading  journals  of  that  quarter. 
The  New  York  Evening  Post  pronounced  the  deci- 
sion of  the  arbitrators  "a  gratifying  triumph  of 
common  sense  and  common  honesty."  While  the 
Boston  Transcript  regarded  the  settlement  with  a 
goodly  degree  of  doubt  and  called  the  decision  a 
"two-edged  sword,"  it  manifested  an  interest  which 
showed  that  a  regard  for  the  Negro  and  his  welfare 
retains  a  firm  hold  on  the  public  mind.  It  said : 
"Outwardly  this  appears  like  a  splendid  exhibition 
of  fair  play  between  the  two  races,  but  practically 
whenever  an  employer  is  compelled  by  statute,  or  by 
agreement  with  labor-unions,  or  by  public  sentiment 
to  equalize  wages  in  disregard  of  economic  law,  the 
result  is  usually  that  he  takes  the  class  which  could 
only  be  had  at  the  higher  figure." 

The  New  York  World  took  the  view  that  "in  the 
long  run  it  is  the  white  labor  of  the  South  that  will 
profit  most  from  the  Negro's  economic  equality," 
and  then  proceeds  to  say  "when  such  equality  is 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          193 

established,  white  labor  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
Negro  competition.  The  superior  intelligence  of 
the  white  man  and  his  greater  productive  capacity 
are  a  continuing  insurance  against  his  displacement. 
In  the  higher  ranks  of  artisans  and  mechanics  only 
a  relatively  small  number  of  Negroes  will  attain  the 
white  standard,  but  the  door  of  hope  will  be  closed 
to  no  man. 

"But  if  the  Negro  is  to  be  discriminated  against 
on  a  wage  basis,  merely  because  he  is  a  Negro,  an 
irrepressible  industrial  conflict  is  created  in  which 
white  labor  is  bound  to  lose.  The  cheaper  labor 
will  drive  the  higher-priced  labor  out  of  employ- 
ment, just  as  slave  labor  brought  the  poor  whites 
to  shiftlessness  and  degradation. 

"Equal  pay  for  equal  work,  for  white  and  black 
alike,  is  the  only  road  to  industrial  security  for  the 
white  labor  of  the  South.  On  this  issue  the  Ne- 
gro's cause  is  the  white  man's  cause." 

The  New  York  Tribune  took  up  the  matter  in  a 
more  judicial  spirit  and  expressed  the  thought  "that 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  the  decision  will  eliminate 
the  Negro"  and  continued  by  saying :  "Even  at  the 
same  wages  employers  may  prefer  to  employ  a  cer- 
tain proportion  of  Negroes,  because  the  Negro  is 
not  unionized,  and  the  prospect  of  labor  troubles 
will  be  lessened.  Moreover,  white  labor  is  not 
abundant  in  the  South,  and  the  Negro  may  find  his 
opportunity  for  that  reason.  It  is  interesting  to  see 
the  first  appearance  in  the  South  of  this  favorite 


194         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

device  of  the  labor-unions  to  crowd  out  cheaper 
labor.  With  regard  to  the  labor  of  women  in  the 
North  the  unions  have  adopted  the  same  equal  pay 
attitude;  in  unionized  trades  women  must  receive 
the  same  wages  as  men.  No  doubt  we  shall  hear 
more  of  the  same  doctrine  in  the  South.  Its  effect 
if  generally  put  in  force  would  be  problematical 
there.  In  some  trades  it  might  mean  preference 
for  the  cheaper  Negro  labor  and  the  elimination  of 
the  whites.  That  would  be  impossible  on  the  rail- 
roads, however,  since  white  firemen  must  be  re- 
tained in  order  to  recruit  engineers  from  their 
ranks." 

While  these  expressions  were  generally  favorable, 
there  were  not  wanting  some  papers  which  repre- 
sent a  lesser  aspect  of  thought  which  expressed  un- 
favorable comment  on  the  decision  reached  by  the 
board  of  arbitrators.  But  this  was  to  be  expected, 
as  the  source  represented  that  which  was  unfavor- 
able to  the  Negro.  The  fact  that  this  emergency 
was  possible  in  the  states  of  the  South,  shows  the 
necessity  of  the  timely  interposition  of  just  such  a 
force  as  was  here  called  into  requisition,  the  charac- 
ter of  which  will  be  needed  again  as  future  exigen- 
cies will  arise.  But  the  fact  that  the  Negro  was 
vindicated  on  the  basis  of  merit  alone,  is  a  favorable 
augury.  As  he  increases  in  importance  and  indus- 
trial value,  he  will  need  more  and  more  the  inter- 
position of  the  better  class  of  whites. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         195 

One  of  the  difficulties  respecting  the  relations  of 
the  two  races  is  that  the  large  worthy  class  of  Ne- 
groes come  but  rarely  into  contact  with  the  better 
elements  of  the  white  population  of  the  South. 
Their  pursuits  and  vocations  lie  apart  in  distinct 
spheres  of  action,  and  but  little  is  known  of  that 
which  each  is  doing.  Events  already  named  sev- 
ered them,  and  the  disposition  to  recount  only  the 
misdeeds  of  the  unworthy  Negroes  has  built  up  a 
partition  between  the  two  races.  Induced  into  co- 
operation with  the  best  whites,  this  higher  and 
worthier  class  of  Negroes  are  in  position  to  render 
effectual  aid  in  relieving  the  situation  of  much  of 
its  stress.  Any  specific  movement  looking  in  that 
direction  on  the  part  of  the  philanthropic  white  men 
would  be  hailed  as  a  happy  augury  by  this  class  of 
Negroes,  who  are  in  position  to  assist  as  no  other 
agency  can.  It  would  seem  that  nothing  short  of 
a  general  popular  movement  which  would  bring  into 
exercise  the  best  of  both  races,  will  relieve  the  situa- 
tion in  the  South,  and  the  importance  of  a  move- 
ment like  this  would  suggest  that  it  not  be  delayed. 

The  worth  which  the  Negro  has  established  in  the 
South  makes  it  important  that  some  action  be  taken 
in  his  behalf.  He  is  not  without  thousands  of 
friends  among  the  better  people  of  the  South,  but 
the  sentiment  is  dissipated  and  unorganized.  The 
time  must  come  sooner  or  later  when  the  matter 
must  claim  the  attention  of  the  best  people  of  the 


196          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

country  in  a  more  general  and  generous  way  than  it 
has  yet  done.* 

*In  The  World's  Work  for  October,  1909,  in  a  brief  sketch 
given  of  Robert  S.  Lovett,  the  successor  to  Mr.  Harriman, 
appears  the  following  under  the  head  of  "Mr.  Harriman's 
Chief  of  Staff" : 

"One  day  last  summer  Judge  Lovett  received  from  a  com- 
mittee of  prominent  citizens  of  Houston,  Texas,  a  long  letter 
asking  that  he  make  it  his  business  to  see  that  white  men  be 
given  the  first  chance  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  switching  yards 
at  Houston  caused  by  the  dropping  of  Negroes.  In  his  reply 
he  took  up  and  demolished  the  'reasons'  set  forth  by  the 
citizens.  The  concluding  paragraphs  of  the  letter  are  worth 
quoting  as  an  illustration  of  the  manner  of  the  man's  mind 
in  dealing  with  public  questions : 

"'Another  reason  given  in  the  petition  from  the  citizens 
of  Houston  is,  "We  believe  that  positions  paying  the  wages 
these  positions  do  should  be  in  the  hands  of  white  men." 
This  simply  means  that  Negroes  shall  not  be  allowed  to  do 
work  that  pays  good  wages  whenever  there  are  white  men 
who  want  the  job.  Where  is  the  line  to  be  drawn  upon  the 
rate  of  wages  and  the  kind  of  labor  the  Negro  shall  be  al- 
lowed? If  this  company  must  not  employ  them  as  switchmen, 
may  they  be  employed  as  section  men,  porters,  sawmill  hands, 
bricklayers,  teamsters,,  warehouse  laborers^  barbers,  gardeners, 
farmers,  or  in  any  of  the  other  pursuits  in  which  they  must 
labor  to  live?  It  "would  be  just  as  right  and  reasonable  to 
replace  the  Negro  in  any  of  these  occupations  with  white  men, 
simply  because  the  latter  want  the  job,  as  to  replace  the  Negro 
switchmen  of  this  company,  who  are  doing  their  work  well, 
with  white  men,  merely  because  they  want  the  positions. 

"  'If  the  policy  thus  urged  upon  this  company  is  to  be  the 
policy  of  the  South  toward  the  Negro ;  if  he  is  to  be  allowed 
to  do  only  such  labor  as  no  white  man  will  do,  and  receive 
only  such  wages  as  no  white  man  wants,  what  is  to  become 
of  the  Negroes?  How  are  they  to  livei*  Food  and  clothes 
they  must  have.  If  not  by  labor  how  are  they  to  get  the 
necessaries  of  life?  Hunger  must  and  will  be  satisfied — 
prisons  and  chain-gangs  notwithstanding. 

"  'After  most  careful  and  respectful  considerations,  none 
of  the  reasons  suggested  and  none  I  have  been  able  to  think 
of  justifies  me  to  committing  this  company  in  any  way  to  a 
policy  fraught  with  such  far-reaching  consequences  and  so 
much  opposed  to  my  own  sense  of  justice  to  faithful 
servants.' " 

Judge  Lovett  is  a  Southern  man,  having  been  born  and 
reared  in  Texas. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

GROUNDLESS  THEORIES  OF  APPREHENSION. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  predictions  made 
by  many,  in  the  outset  of  Negro  freedom  in  the 
South,  when  the  Negro  was  penniless  and  friend- 
less, and  was  turned  loose  with  a  liberty  which  was 
a  positive  embarrassment  to  him,  with  the  theories 
which  came  to  prevail  after  he  began  to  realize  the 
force  of  the  meaning  of  his  liberation,  and  entered 
on  a  course  of  steady  advancement  in  intellectual 
improvement  and  material  development.  At  first, 
he  was  deemed  incapable  of  advancement,  and  the 
prediction  was  made  that  he  would  become  an  incu- 
bus and  a  burden  to  society  because  of  his  incapacity. 
It  was  honestly  believed  by  not  a  few  that  he  would 
be  unable  to  cope  with  existing  conditions  in  the 
scrambles  of  life,  and  that  his  drift  would  be  toward 
paganism.  In  the  initial  stages  of  freedom  his  efforts 
were  crude  and  bungling,  and  were  a  source  of  much 
merriment.  But  as  he  has  pursued  his  torturous 
way,  manifesting  first  of  all  an  avidity  for  learning 
in  the  schools,  and  as  he  has  turned  to  practical  ac- 
count the  slight  advantages  within  his  reach,  and  has 
gradually  gained  a  footing  in  life,  prospering  as  he 
has  gone,  opinions  have  undergone  a  radical  change, 

197 


198         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

and  favorable  sentiment  is  now  turning  toward  him. 

The  anomalous  position  and  condition  of  the  race 
exposed  it  to  the  curious  gaze  of  the  public,  as  every 
one  was  anxious  to  see  what  it  would  be  able  to  make 
of  its  novel  freedom.  As  the  race  has  pursued  its 
way,  procuring  what  was  afforded  by  the  educa- 
tional facilities  placed  at  its  disposal,  building 
homes,  building  houses  of  worship,  and  manning 
them  with  a  ministry  trained  in  the  schools,  bought 
lands  and  tilled  it  with  profit  to  itself  and  to  the 
state,  established  schools  of  its  own,  and  conducted 
them  by  the  most  approved  means  of  modern  in- 
struction, sending,  meanwhile,  its  representatives 
into  the  different  professions,  founded  banks  and 
established  stores,  many  of  which  are  patronized  by 
the  whites,  developed  leaders  of  wisdom  and  of 
power,  who  are  slowly  getting  a  grip  on  the  race 
for  its  improvement,  and  as  orators,  authors,  edi- 
tors, educators,  surgeons,  bankers,  managers,  hotel 
keepers,  planters  and  others  have  been  developed, 
original  predictions  of  failure  have  been  changed  into 
theories  of  apprehension,  lest  the  race  attain  to  an 
importance  which  may  not  only  bring  it  into  acute 
competition  with  the  Caucasian  race,  but  occasion 
such  conditions  as  will  result  in  race  conflict. 

Not  a  few  have  been  the  efforts  made  by  noisy  lec- 
turers, and  prejudiced  authors  of  a  certain  type  of 
literature,  to  have  it  appear  that  the  Negro  is  rising 
to  such  prominence  as  to  imperil  even  "white  su- 
premacy." Had  the  original  conceptions  been  realized 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          199 

respecting  the  Negro,  he  would  have  been  despised, 
but  now  that  the  opposite  is  true,  he  is,  by  a  given 
class,  envied  and  feared.  Various  have  been  the  ap- 
prehensions expressed  in  the  event  of  certain  contin- 
gencies concerning  the  progress  of  the  Negro,  but 
in  every  instance,  these  have  proved  groundless  with 
the  arrival  of  the  facts.  It  has  been  found  that 
these  apprehensions  have  been  more  the  results  of 
the  imagination  than  those  of  realization.  As  the 
gateways  one  by  one  have  opened  to  the  Negro,  he 
has  quietly  entered  them,  efficiently  done  his  work, 
and  it  has  been  found  that  the  world  has  a  place  for 
the  Negro,  and  when  he  has  reached  it,  he  has  fitted 
himself  into  it  as  do  all  other  men.  The  result  of 
this  has  generally  been  an  appreciation  of  his  adapta- 
bility and  readiness  to  respond  to  conditions,  and 
has  served  to  evoke  due  meed  of  praise.  The  Negro 
has  not  been  slow  to  acquire  much  wisdom  and  to 
learn  many  important  lessons  in  the  ups  and  downs 
of  his  career,  among  which  is  that  when  they  bring 
to  an  assumed  undertaking  ability  to  accomplish, 
there  has  not  been  withheld  the  proper  accord  of 
merit.  As  a  result  of  this  steady  condition,  all  fears 
have  vanished  and  all  theories  have  dissolved  where 
Negroes  have  brought  to  tasks  in  life  ability  to  ac- 
complish that  to  which  they  have  set  their  hands. 
One  instance  will  serve  to  illustrate  others.  An 
intelligent  and  prudent  young  colored  man,  a  grad- 
uate from  one  of  the  colored  schools  of  the  South, 
went  to  a  town  in  one  of  the  South  Atlantic  states, 


200         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

procured  a  piece  of  land  and  began  the  erection  of  a 
school  building  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the 
young  Negroes  of  that  region  the  methods  of  agri- 
cultural industry.  He  was  quietly  waited  on  by  a 
body  of  white  citizens,  who  after  learning  of  his 
purpose,  informed  him  that  they  were  opposed  to  his 
project,  as  it  would  bode  no  good  to  the  town,  nor  to 
the  Negroes  of  that  region,  and  advised  him  that  he 
must  desist  from  further  procedure.  He  assured 
them  that  no  such  conditions  as  those  which  they  ap- 
prehended would  result,  and  gave  assurance  that  if 
he  be  allowed  to  proceed  with  his  enterprise,  they 
would  have  no  occasion  to  regret  the  reversal  of 
their  decision.  His  plea  was  so  assuring  and  sub- 
missive withal,  that  they  agreed  to  hold  their  objec- 
tions in  abeyance  and  await  the  test.  The  school 
building  was  completed  and  duly  opened,  was  con- 
tinued with  increased  usefulness  from  year  to  year, 
with  such  wholesome  results  on  the  Negro  popula- 
tion of  that  region,  and  with  so  much  financial  profit 
to  the  town,  that  every  worthy  white  citizen  would 
now  protect  it  against  any  attempted  assault  or  even 
against  adverse  criticism. 

It  is  not  from  the  worthy  class  of  blacks  that 
troubles  come  in  the  South.  Where  they  make 
themselves  worthy  and  indispensable,  where  they 
can  do  things  better  and  for  less  money  than  can 
others,  they  are  sought.  Such  as  these  never  fail 
to  make  for  themselves  positions  of  respectability 
which  is  duly  accorded.  In  another  Southern  town 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         201 

a  well-to-do  Negro  casually  passed  two  white  men 
on  the  street.  The  Negro  is  a  thrifty  business  man, 
owning  several  houses  for  rent  and  a  good  planta- 
tion, besides  a  bank  account  of  which  any  ordinary 
citizen  might  feel  proud.  As  he  was  passed,  one  of 
the  whites  turned  to  the  other  and  said,  "It  is  all  I 
can  do  to  keep  from  calling  that  nigger,  Mister." 
The  incident,  though  trifling,  is  not  without  abun- 
dance of  suggestion. 

While  the  apprehension  has  materially  lessened 
because  it  has  so  often  been  eclipsed  by  concrete  fact, 
yet  it  still  lurks  in  many  minds  that  the  better  equip- 
ment of  the  Negro  intellectually  would  prove  an 
injury  to  himself  and  to  society  at  large;  but  when 
the  effort  is  made  to  summon  the  facts  in  proof  of 
this,  they  are  usually  found  wanting.  The  Negro 
takes  the  place  which  the  world  provides  for  him. 
His  efficiency  readily  adapts  him  to  his  sphere. 
With  him  it  is  as  true  as  it  is  of  all  others,  life  is 
what  he  makes  it.  In  no  community  in  the  South 
do  people  suffer  in  consequence  of  Negroes  who 
know  something  and  are  prepared  to  do  something. 
The  truth  is  that  such  are  sought,  and  will  continue 
to  be.  Not  the  slightest  apprehension  is  created  by 
the  class  of  well-to-do  Negroes  of  the  South.  It  is 
a  noteworthy  fact  that  no  graduate  from  either 
Hampton  or  Tuskegee  has  ever  been  accused  of  even 
the  slightest  impropriety  of  conduct  toward  ladies. 
It  is  equally  to  the  credit  of  these  schools  and  to  the 
work  which  they  are  doing  for  the  colored  race, 


202          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

that  none  of  their  graduates  have  been  sentenced  to 
the  penitentiary.  If  intelligence  and  general  equip- 
ment are  dangerous  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the 
Negro,  the  fact  would  long  ago  have  been  developed 
by  at  least  one  of  these  products  from  these  schools. 
Nor  is  it  true  that  this  class  of  colored  people  are 
unduly  assertive  and  mandatory  of  special  rights  and 
favors.  All  observation  .proves  that  they  are  usually 
the  quietest  of  the  Negro  population,  and  the  most 
submissive  to  wrongs  imposed.  The  culture  acquired 
so  disposes  them.  That  there  may  be  exceptions  of 
undue  assumption,  is  not  denied.  It  would  be  most 
marvelous  if  this  were  not  so.  But  these  slight  ex- 
ceptions, if  they  be,  do  not  prove  the  rule,  as  every 
well-informed  person  in  the  South  knows.  True, 
an  exception  respecting  the  Negro  usually  goes  fur- 
ther than  when  commonly  applied,  as  to  the  conduct 
of  one  to  the  many,  yet  the  absence  of  the  exceptions 
means  much. 

It  is  ordinarily  the  case  that  wherever  one  is  able, 
by  dint  of  effort  and  economy,  to  buy  and  till  land, 
to  found  and  maintain  a  home,  and  to  become  a  pro- 
ducer of  marketable  commodities  in  a  community, 
he  is  by  virtue  of  these  facts,  a  much  better  man  and 
citizen.  Observation  teaches  that  efficiency  and  lit- 
eracy promote  thrift,  self-respect,  interest  in  the  gen- 
eral welfare  of  the  community,  and  strength  of 
character,  whether  these  pertain  to  the  white,  red, 
black  or  saffron  races  of  men.  To  elevate  men  so 
that  they  can  observe  and  think  for  themselves,  and 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          203 

act  for  themselves,  is  infinitely  better  than  to  repress 
them  by  sheer  force  and  control  them  by  the  stern- 
ness of  law.  As  President  Booker  T.  Washington 
pithily  puts  it,  "One  man  cannot  hold  another  down 
in  the  ditch  without  remaining  down  there  himself." 
Touching  the  race  question,  it  should  always  be 
borne  in  mind  that  not  only  are  there  two  races  in- 
volved but  two  sides  of  an  issue,  as  well.  What- 
ever benefits  the  Negro  will  benefit  the  white  man ; 
and  contrariwise,  whatever  works  to  the  detriment 
of  the  one,  by  a  law  inseparable  from  the  very  condi- 
tion of  things,  works  to  the  detriment  of  the  other. 
The  relation  of  the  two  races  make  this  an  inexor- 
able principle.  The  races  must  stand  or  fall  to- 
gether. If  drastic  measures  are  employed  to  the 
exclusion  of  justice  and  mercy,  the  reaction  is  one 
of  hardness  and  the  general  impairment  of  char- 
acter on  the  part  of  the  inflicter.  In  order  to  repress 
the  Negro  we  must  necessarily  depress  the  standard 
of  our  own  manhood.  We  may  gratify  revenge  by 
undue  advantage  taken,  but  such  gratification  reacts 
in  a  tendency  toward  savagery,  with  the  certainty 
of  an  inexorable  law.  No  one  can  escape  the  con- 
sequences to  character  of  cherished  sentiments  and 
overt  action.  To  cheer,  aid,  inspire  and  relieve 
broadens  one,  while  another  is  helped. 

"He  is  dead  whose  hand  is  not  opened  wide 

To  help  the  need  of  a  human  brother ; 

He  doubles  the  length  of  his  life-long  ride 

Who  of  his  fortune  gives  to  another; 


204          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

And  a  thousand  million  lives  are  his 
Who  carries  the  world  in  his  sympathies 

To  deny 

Is  to  die:" 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  from  the  dire 
predictions  of  years  ago  of  the  incapacity  of  the 
Negro,  there  has  come  to  pass,  in  these  later  times, 
an  apprehension  of  the  industrial  rivalry  of  the 
Negro.  It  is  certainly  not  creditable  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  with  centuries  of  culture  and  advantage  be- 
hind him,  and  with  the  most  splendid  civilization  the 
world  has  ever  known  at  his  ready  command,  to  lisp 
a  syllable  of  apprehension  concerning  the  rivalry  of 
the  Negro  in  any  particular.  It  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine which  is  more  involved  in  such  an  apprehen- 
sion, the  conscious  inferiority  of  the  Caucasian  or 
a  tremendous  compliment  to  the  lately-enslaved 
Negro.  The  Anglo-Saxon  who  ventures  to  utter 
such  apprehension  does  his  race  great  discredit.  In 
the  multiplicity  of  industrial  opportunities  afforded, 
and  in  the  vast,  untouched  domain  of  that  which  is 
yet  to  be  done,  it  sounds  like  the  refinement  of  sar- 
casm to  express  the  slightest  fear  in  behalf  of  the 
growing  efficiency  of  the  Negro.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  if  the  white  man,  with  all  his 
boundless  advantages,  is  to  be  surpassed  by  the 
Negro,  with  his  numerous  handicaps,  then  he  is 
worthy  of  being  excelled.  So  far  from  fearing  the 
Negro,  there  is  not  an  Anglo-Saxon  who  should  not 
from  his  exalted  advantage  be  ready  to  inspire  every 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         205 

worthy  Negro  to  do  his  best  in  personal  improve- 
ment and  for  the  public  good. 

But  one  of  the  chiefest  of  the  concerns  in  the 
minds  of  some  in  the  states  of  the  South,  is  that  of 
the  assertion  of  the  Negro,  in  his  ambition  to 
attain  to  equality  in  social  life.  Possibly  no  appre- 
hension is  more  far-fetched  and  strained  than  this 
one.  Certainly  none  is  more  groundless,  yet  it  has 
been  a  popular  bugaboo  for  almost  a  generation. 
For  years  it  has  been  a  favorite  slogan  of  the  stump 
in  the  lips  of  the  paltry  demagogue.  It  has  fur- 
nished to  the  cheap  lecturer  on  the  platform  not  a 
little  of  prejudicial  material,  and  to  a  certain  class 
of  mercenary  authors  of  sensational  novels,  it  has 
been  an  occasion  of  bonanzas.  It  disturbs  not  the 
class  of  people  whose  width  of  information  and  of 
observation  justifies  no  such  apprehension.  They 
see  no  occasion  of  such  fear.  Nor  is  there  occa- 
sioned with  this  class  other  than  ridicule  because  of 
the  entertainment  of  a  fear  like  this. 

Certainly  there  has  been  nothing  on  the  part  of 
the  Negro  to  justify  it.  If  such  assertion  should  be 
made  it  would  come  first  from  the  class  of  intelli- 
gent and  progressive  blacks.  We  should  look  natu- 
rally first  in  that  direction  for  such  a  demonstration. 
Has  it  been  made?  Are  they  not  really  the  best- 
behaved  and  the  least  demonstrative  of  the  Negro 
people?  In  this  respect  they  have  occasioned  no 
more  trouble  than  they  have  in  any  other.  They 


206         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

are  orderly  and  uniformly  polite  and  more  concess- 
ive than  any  others.  In  justice  to  the  educated 
Negro  and  to  his  credit,  let  this  testimony  be  borne. 
Perhaps  the  apprehension  is  due  chiefly  to  certain 
expressions  of  protest  on  the  part  of  Negroes,  as 
occasionally  but  seldom  made,  because  of  the  gross 
injustice  experienced  by  them  on  the  common  car- 
riers. They  have  not  resisted  the  separation  of  the 
races  into  "jimcrow"  compartments,  but  they  have 
protested  against  the  inferiority  of  the  accommoda- 
tions sometimes,  yea,  oftentimes  afforded,  and  the 
unjust  discrimination  of  certain  corporations  by 
declining  to  provide  equal  facilities  of  comfort  for 
a  uniform  rate  of  travel.  Alike  by  most  of  the 
Southern  states  and  cities  there  has  been  adopted 
the  method  of  separate  apartments,  on  the  common 
carriers,  for  the  two  races,  with  the  theoretical  pro- 
vision of  uniform  facilities  for  uniform  rates.  Yet 
it  is  a  fact  commonly  known,  that  while  the  fares 
have  been  uniform,  the  facilities  of  comfort  have 
not  been.  At  times,  Negroes  have  protested  against 
this  discrimination,  and  justly.  So  far  from  this  ex- 
pression on  the  part  of  the  Negro  exciting  appre- 
hension and  opposition,  lest  it  savor  of  demands  of 
social  equality,  it  should  excite  our  appreciation  of 
the  Negro.  Because  he  does  thus  insist  on  fair 
treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  corporations,  we 
should  the  more  respect  him.  He  has  a  clear  right 
for  that  for  which  he  has  paid,  and  a  chivalrous 
public  sentiment  should  interpose  to  see  to  it  that 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         207 

greedy  corporations  be  not  allowed  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  Negro  because  he  is  one.  No  genuinely 
chivalrous  white  man  would  suffer  a  Negro  to  be 
openly  robbed  before  his  eyes  on  the  street,  nor 
would  he  without  protest  witness  undue  advantage 
taken  openly  of  an  ignorant  Negro  in  the  purchase 
of  goods.  Yet  when  the  Negro  raises  a  protest 
against  mistreatment  on  the  railway  lines,  it  is  often 
construed  as  an  expression  of  undue  assertion  on  his 
part,  and  as  indicating  a  desire  for  riding  in  a  mixed 
condition  with  the  whites.  So  far  as  the  present 
writer  is  informed,  the  separation  is  preferable  to 
the  Negro,  provided  the  conditions  be  on  an  equit- 
able basis  of  fare  and  comfort.  The  protest  on  the 
part  of  the  Negro  against  unfair  treatment  no  more 
means  a  craving  for  social  equality  than  does  his 
demand  for  value  received  in  a  mercantile  establish- 
ment. 

This  bugbear  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Negro 
for  social  equality,  like  certain  others,  exists  chiefly 
in  the  imagination.  When  the  Negro  shall  begin 
to  publish  books  and  papers  in  the  interest  of  social 
equality,  when  he  shall  teach  it  in  his  schools,  and 
inculcate  it  from  his  pulpits,  then  may  we  take  cogni- 
zance of  it,  but  not  take  counsel  of  our  fears  merely, 
and  bring  a  railing  accusation  against  the  black  man. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

OMENS  OF  PROMISE. 

The  years  of  race  agitation  in  the  South  have  not 
been  without  the  production  of  certain  results  which 
are  advantageous  in  their  bearing  on  the  future  set- 
tlement of  the  question.  Certain  features  have  be- 
come distinct,  every  one  of  which  is  suggestive  of 
the  general  course  to  be  pursued  in  the  final  settle- 
ment of  the  problem.  In  addition  to  these  are  other 
existing  indications  which  seem  fraught  with  en- 
couragement, among  which  may  be  named  that  of 
the  growth  of  the  division  of  sentiment  among  the 
whites  of  the  states  of  the  South.  That  is  to  say, 
while  for  a  period  there  was  no  such  division  as  was 
perceptible,  there  are  those  who  are  now  the  pro- 
nounced friends  of  the  Negro,  and  the  number  is 
steadily  increasing.  Heretofore  most  of  the  dis- 
cussions of  the  question  were  not  altogether  friendly 
to  him,  and  many  of  them  were  decidedly  unfavor- 
able, many  are  rising  up  to  be  heard  in  his  defense, 
from  different  points  of  observation.  This  is  due 
to  more  than  one  cause,  one  of  which  is  a  growing 
conviction  that  the  policy  of  repression  so  long  pur- 
sued is  in  certain  respects  a  mistaken  one,  and  must 
be  exchanged  for  one  of  encouragement  and  of  in- 

208 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEti         209 

citement   to   attain    to   the   utmost   possibility   of 
achievement. 

That  there  is  ability  in  the  Negro  race  has  been 
abundantly  demonstrated.  How  much  more  clearly 
that  demonstration  might  have  been,  but  for  the 
conditions  of  circumscription  often  imposed  on  the 
Negro  cannot  now  be  determined ;  but  one  thing  is 
clearly  manifest,  namely,  that  the  leadership  devel- 
oped by  the  race  has  been  of  manifold  benefit  in  the 
direction  of  the  forces  of  the  race.  More  than  it 
is  aware,  the  public  is  indebted  to  that  leadership  for 
the  frequent  services  rendered  in  directing  the  race 
away  from  courses  from  which  society  would  have 
suffered  had  certain  contingencies  arisen.  Fortu- 
nately, alike  for  the  Negro  and  society  at  large, 
there  is  an  unusual  sanity  which  has  all  along  domi- 
nated that  leadership.  While  its  course  has  ex- 
cited the  confidence  of  the  race  which  it  represents, 
it  has  commanded  the  esteem  of  all  the  white  friends 
of  the  Negro.  While  those  leaders  might  have 
seized  on  certain  excited  junctures  for  expressions 
of  violence  in  order  to  stir  improper  passion,  their 
policy  has  been  to  turn  the  gaze  of  the  race  to  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  and  have  sought  to  arouse 
its  impulses  to  the  performance  of  deeds  which  every 
sincere  citizen  has  been  forced  to  applaud.  How- 
ever much  such  leadership  may  have  deplored  cer- 
tain violent  and  uncalled-for  exhibitions,  its  influ- 
ence has  been  thrown  to  the  better  side  of  turning 
each  occasion  to  practical  benefit.  The  influence  of 


210         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

those  leaders  has  been  lent  to  peace  and  submission 
rather  than  to  retaliation.  The  utter  inutility  of  re- 
taliation and  its  folly  have  been  duly  appreciated. 
To  have  been  betrayed  into  a  course  of  attempted 
retaliation  would  have  occasioned  an  outbreak  of 
interracial  flames,  the  final  result  of  which  has  been 
clearly  foreseen  by  those  in  the  front  file. 

True,  these  leaders  have  not  escaped  much  harsh 
criticism  at  the  hands  of  some,  even  of  their  own 
race,  because  of  the  pursuit  of  this  policy,  but  it  has 
been  those  of  the  more  impetuous,  who  have  failed 
to  catch  the  ear  of  their  people  and  have  equally 
failed  to  win  them  from  the  direction  of  the  more 
prudent  and  sagacious.  While  the  notives  of  the 
wiser  have  not  escaped  impugnment,  and  while  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  reduce  the  strength  of 
their  influence  with  the  masses  of  the  race,  their  pol- 
icy has  been  unchecked,  their  course  unbroken.  All 
this  has  not  failed  to  attract  the  attention  and  to 
command  the  admiration  of  the  more  thoughtful 
of  the  whites,  and  has  served  to  increase  their  zeal 
in  behalf  of  the  Negro  race.  The  precipitation  of 
tumult,  no  matter  for  what  cause,  would  place  the 
Negro  at  a  tremendous  disadvantage.  Challenging 
the  admiration  and  confidence  of  the  better  whites, 
who  have  shared  in  the  disapprobation  of  the  vio- 
lence against  the  Negro,  these  same  leaders  have 
succeeded  in  building  up  increased  interest  in  behalf 
of  their  race,  the  result  of  which  has  been  that 
wrongs  which  were  unnoticed  at  one  time  now  claim 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         211 

profound  attention  and  arouse  deep  indignation.  By 
reason  of  conditions  like  these  the  loftier  tone  of 
sentiment  in  the  South  is  steadily  turning  toward 
the  welfare  of  the  Negro  race.  From  sources  here- 
tofore silent  are  now  coming  pronounced  sentiments 
in  favor  of  the  Negro,  and  with  a  vigor  and  force 
which  are  destined  to  tell  for  good  on  the  future  of 
the  colored  race.  In  addition  to  this,  the  leading 
press  of  the  country  is  manifesting  signs  of  interest 
in  the  Negro's  behalf  which  seem  to  promise  much 
for  his  future  good. 

To  two  principal  causes  are  the  conditions  now 
operating  in  the  South,  for  interracial  improvement, 
due.  One  of  these  is  the  emphatic  worth  of  the 
Negro  himself.  He  is  becoming  growingly  useful 
in  the  varied  pursuits  into  which  he  has  entered, 
and  in  the  accumulation  of  property,  is  becoming  a 
taxpayer,  and  is  showing  increased  interest  in  gen- 
eral affairs.  His  quiet  and  unostentatious  attention 
to  business,  and  his  readiness  to  respond  to  any 
public  or  general  good,  are  acting  powerfully  for 
the  benefit  of  the  race.  This  tendency  is  being  met 
by  a  revival  of  interest  in  behalf  of  the  Negro,  which 
interest  is  being  shown  by  the  higher  type  of  whites. 

Another  of  the  principal  causes  mentioned  is  due 
to  a  sociological  change  which  was  occasioned  in 
the  South  in  consequence  of  the  chaotic  conditions 
produced  by  the  Civil  War.  With  the  overthrow 
of  slavery  in  the  South  came  the  crash  of  its  in- 
dustrial system.  Along  with  this,  too,  came  a  de- 


212          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

cline  of  the  influence  of  the  aristocratic  class — the 
original  slave  owners.  Then,  too,  with  the  sub- 
sidence, for  a  period  of  years,  of  this  aristocratic 
influence,  there  came  into  partial  and  temporary 
prominence,  men  of  a  lesser  class  of  influence  whose 
conditions  fitted  them  the  more  to  grapple  with  the 
conditions  of  the  tumultuous  times  than  the  men  of 
the  aristocracy.  Many  of  this  latter  class,  though 
far  less  powerful,  came  to  political  ascendancy  and 
to  the  domination  of  public  affairs.  To  this  fact  can 
be  traced  the  decline  of  the  power  of  the  South  in 
the  leading  councils  of  the  nation.  Once  dominant 
in  these  high  circles,  the  South  has,  for  a  period  of 
years,  been  at  a  vast  disadvantage  because  of  the 
scarcity  of  its  greater  spirits  among  the  leaders  of 
the  Union.  Not  in  every  instance,  but  in  most,  the 
politician  of  the  South  has  succeeded  the  statesman 
of  former  days. 

Now,  there  is  a  gradual  reascendency  of  the  bet- 
ter South.  That  higher  and  dominant  class  of  other 
years  is  coming  again  to  the  front.  There  is  a  grad- 
ual revival  of  a  long-suspended  interest,  and  the 
immediate  descendants  of  the  element  which  once 
controlled  the  South  are  again  rallying  and  resum- 
ing the  station  of  influence. 

This  class  has  never  ceased  to  be  the  friends  of 
the  Negro.  He  has  never  had  sincerer  friends  than 
they.  They  have  understood  him  as  have  no  oth- 
ers. They  know  alike  his  weaknesses  and  his  mer- 
its. Nor  have  they  participated  in  the  cruelties 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN          213 

which  have  been  visited  on  him.  Most  fortunate 
for  the  Negro  is  this  reaction  taking  place  just  at 
this  time,  when  the  prospects  of  his  people  are 
brightening  because  of  the  conditions  named  several 
times  in  the  discussion  which  has  preceded.  Nor 
are  conditions  wanting  for  bringing  these  forces 
into  contact.  While  the  leaders  recognize  the  im- 
portance of  keeping  the  race  well  within  itself  in  its 
inherent  progress,  and  while  they  recognize  the  ne- 
cessity and  the  wisdom  of  the  race  thinking  for 
itself  rather  than  have  another  race  to  think  for 
it,  at  the  same  time,  it  equally  recognizes  the  import- 
ance of  keeping  in  vital  touch  with  the  influential 
members  of  the  stronger  race.  By  means  of  this, 
there  is  an  exchange  of  ideas  from  which  comes  a 
propulsion  of  force  helpful  to  the  Negro,  and  it  may 
be  said  equally  helpful  to  the  philanthropic  spirit 
of  the  white  man. 

The  organization  and  steady  growth  of  such  help- 
ful institutions  of  the  Negro  as  the  National  Negro 
Business  League,  which  was  founded  by  President 
Booker  T.  Washington  in  1900,  have  been  of  im- 
mense aid  to  the  colored  race  of  the  country.  This 
League  was  a  healthful  augury  of  Negro  progress 
as  the  race  entered  the  gateway  of  the  new  century. 
It  is  possibly  the  greatest  concrete  advertisement  of 
Negro  progress  that  has  ever  been  conceived.  The 
detailed  presentation  of  the  success  of  the  men  of 
the  race  who  have  accomplished  much  in  the  varied 
vocations  awakens  increased  interest  and  effort,  and 


214         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

speaks  through  the  League,  as  a  common  medium, 
of  the  growth  of  its  achievements. 

Nor  must  we  overlook  such  occasional  assemblies 
as  the  Clifton  Conference  held  at  the  summer  home 
of  Mr.  W.  N.  Hartshorn,  near  Marblehead,  Massa- 
chusetts, where  were  invited  to  meet  together 
prominent  men  of  both  races,  white  and  black,  to 
discuss  vital  topics  relative  to  the  race  question. 
The  Conference  had  an  additional  significance  when 
a  prominent  commander  each  of  the  opposing  armies 
of  the  Civil  War  was  present — Generals  O.  O. 
Howard,  of  Vermont,  and  R.  D.  Johnston,  of  Ala- 
bama, whose  commands  were  directly  opposite  at 
Gettysburg.  One  of  these  was  an  original  aboli- 
tionist and  the  other  a  large  slave  owner,  yet  they 
were  here  seated  side  by  side  in  a  conference  of  days 
to  assist  the  black  man  in  his  dilemma.  With  these 
distinguished  men  sat  the  most  prominent  of  the 
colored  race  in  the  same  room,  for  days  together,  in 
the  home  of  a  quiet  philanthropist,  seeking  means 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  conditions  of  the  colored 
people  of  the  South. 

These  may  be  said  to  be  among  the  silent  forces, 
and  so  they  are;  and  the  outcome  of  the  genius  of 
these  and  other  efforts  will  undoubtedly  be  slow,  but 
they  are  at  least  the  prophetic  blooms  of  future  fruit. 
Their  silence  and  slowness  give  promise  of  ripeness 
and  permanence.  Agencies  like  these  acting  in  co- 
operation with  others  less  demonstrative,  perhaps, 
but  none  the  less  efficacious,  are  serving  to  clear  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         215 

way  to  a  gradual  solution  of  a  question  which  has 
too  long  vexed  the  mind  of  the  public.  Emphasis 
given  to  movements  like  these  continue  to  enhance 
in  the  public  mind  the  importance  of  this  vital  sub- 
ject. Nor  does  the  steady  growth  of  the  progress 
of  the  Negro  fail  to  win  public  attention.  This  does 
more  than  quicken  public  sympathy,  it  arouses  sub- 
stantial interest  in  the  race.  Every  colored  man 
who  establishes  himself  in  a  useful  and  lucrative 
pursuit,  widens  the  interest  in  behalf  of  his  people. 

Nor  is  the  public  unobservant  of  the  efforts,  most 
pathetic  in  themselves,  on  the  part  of  the  higher 
type  of  the  Negro  race,  to  reach  and  influence  the 
baser  elements  of  their  people.  Prompted  by  no 
other  desire  than  that  of  the  most  generous  phi- 
lanthropy, thousands  of  the  best  are  ministering  in 
divers  ways,  daily,  to  the  unfortunate  of  the  race 
in  a  most  quiet  and  unostentatious  manner  possible. 
They  are  not  aware  that  this  silent  work  is  known 
and  observed  by  those  who  are  closely  studying  their 
conditions;  yet  it  is  known  that  in  many  sections 
there  is  a  house  to  house  ministration  on  the  part 
of  the  best  for  the  worst.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  other 
people  on  the  globe  are  doing  more  with  proportion- 
ate means  at  command  than  the  Negroes  of  the 
South  in  genuine  philanthropic  effort.  By  means  of 
hard  earnings,  eked  out  by  the  daily  toil  of  thou- 
sands, the  worthier  are  seeking  to  relieve  and  raise 
their  unfortunate  ones  on  the  bottom  rounds. 

Until  the  condition  of  the  Negro  is  studied  in 


216         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

detail,  one  fails  to  gain  a  genuine  insight  into  what 
the  majority  of  the  Negroes  are  doing.  In  their 
own  crude  ways  they  are  seeking  to  work  from 
within  outward  for  the  improvement  of  their  peo- 
ple, and  such  race  loyalty  has  never  been  known 
as  they  exhibit.  A  people  displaying  a  spirit  like 
this  is  altogether  worthy  of  encouragement,  and  it 
is  gradually  on  the  way. 

So,  notwithstanding  the  indulgence  of  certain  mor- 
bid and  lugubrious  predictions  concerning  the  race, 
its  darkest  days  seem  to  be  behind  it.  Difficulties 
great  and  grave  are  yet  to  be  met,  but  the  agencies 
now  on  the  march,  many  of  which  are  silent  and 
without  observation,  give  promise  of  their  gradual 
removal.  The  Negro  has  a  place  in  American  life 
and  cultivation,  and  he  will  eventually  settle  into 
it  with  a  pluck  to  work  out  his  destiny  alongside 
that  of  the  white  race.  It  will  not  be  by  a  fusion 
of  the  races,  for  against  this  the  Negro  is  as  firmly 
set  as  is  his  brother  in  white;  but  side  by  side  the 
races  will  eventually  live  and  thrive  in  mutual  bene- 
fit and  for  the  general  good.  Tendencies  are  con- 
centrating toward  this  end,  and  calm  wisdom  will 
eventually  find  the  proper  path  which  will  relieve 
the  present  stress  by  the  discovery  of  a  racial  orbit 
for  each,  and  racial  adjustment  will  be  fully  con- 
summated. 

There  will  continue  to  be  more  or  less  violence  on 
the  lower  basis  of  society,  but  the  public  is  waking 
up  to  the  fact  that  the  preservation  of  society  de- 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         217 

mands  that  this  shall  find  an  end,  and  so  it  will.  So 
long  as  the  race  of  Negroes  proves  its  worth,  as  it 
is  constantly  doing,  just  so  long  will  it  continue  to 
elicit  the  esteem  of  the  better  whites  among  them, 
and  elsewhere.  The  Negro  must  work  out  his  own 
destiny,  as  he  has  bravely  set  forth  to  do,  and 'he 
will  continue  to  command  the  encouragement  of 
others  about  him.  He  has  thousands  of  friends  of 
whom  he  knows  nothing,  the  interest  of  whom  is 
stimulated  by  his  commendable  progress,  and  this 
will  grow  as  he  continues  to  show  himself  worthy. 
There  are  at  present  difficulties  which  seem  impene- 
trable and  which  mock  even  the  mildest  form  of  op- 
timism, but  the  hope  of  the  situation  lies  in  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  the  gospel  concern- 
ing which  Motley  says :  "Religion  on  all  great  his- 
torical occasions  has  acted  as  the  most  powerful  of 
dissolvents."  When  the  situation  is  cleared  of  its 
obscurity,  which  process  is  now  in  progress,  Chris- 
tian America  will  see  in  this  question  one  that  is 
without  an  equal  in  its  appeal  to  heart  and  con- 
science from  any  point  of  view  that  it  may  be  re- 
garded. 

Ten  million  human  beings,  whose  presence  in 
America  is  not  one  of  choice,  but  one  of  coercion, 
with  a  history  that  is  unique,  and  with  a  destiny 
which  mightily  relates  itself  to  the  permanent  life 
of  the  nation,  cannot  be  lightly  esteemed.  It  shapes 
itself  into  a  tremendous  issue  which  carries  with  it 
a  challenge  alike  to  philanthropy  and  Christianity. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A  NEW  DEMAND  FOR  AN  "AGE  OF  REASON." 

"Come,  now,  and  let  us  reason  together,"  was  a 
divine  injunction  put  into  the  lips  of  an  ancient 
prophet  to  be  voiced  to  a  people  who,  swayed  and 
controlled  by  the  agitation  of  the  times,  had  drifted 
far  from  duty  and  obligation.  The  preceding  chap- 
ters have  been  prepared  with  a  view  of  concen- 
trating public  attention  on  a  stupendous  question 
which  towers  in  our  midst,  and  in  which  inheres 
problems  which  must  sooner  or  later  be  grappled 
with.  Every  one  capable  of  even  ordinary  reflection 
is  forced  to  a  recognition  of  this  as  a  mighty  fact. 
Men  of  both  races,  white  and  black,  see  in  the  drift 
of  present  events  and  in  the  meanings  which  they 
bear  on  their  surface,  an  inevitable  increase  of  diffi- 
culty unless  some  policy  can  be  devised  for  its  solu- 
tion. While  this  is  true,  there  are  certain  plain 
principles  which  must  inevitably  push  their  way 
through  the  years  of  the  future,  and  bear  along 
with  them  certain  results  for  good  or  evil,  accord- 
ing to  the  direction  which  may  now  be  given  them. 
By  no  possible  means  can  these  principles  be  stem- 
med. The  purpose  should  now  be  so  to  control 
and  direct  them  that  they  may  result  in  good  and 

218 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         219 

not  in  evil.  The  pliability  of  our  institutions  and 
the  nature  of  our  laws  forbid  the  interposition  of 
any  policy  other  than  that  based  on  truth  and  justice 
in  seeking  to  solve  the  present  difficulty.  The  soon- 
er this  fact  is  recognized  and  acted  on  the  better  it 
will  be  for  all  concerned.  There  are  hidden  germs 
in  the  difficulty  which  have  not  yet  come  to  life,  and 
which  when  they  shall  do  so,  will  mean  immensely 
more  than  is  now  apparent  in  the  augmentation  of 
the  race  problem. 

Drastic  laws  may  prove  a  temporary  makeshift  in 
the  present  state  of  partially  raw  conditions,  and 
the  vent  may  be  'stopped  thereby  for  a  time,  but 
meanwhile  fresh  complications  are  germinating, 
with  a  promise  of  future  harvests.  The  attempted 
settlement  of  the  difficulty  has  been  deferred  suffi- 
ciently long,  and  the  problem  has  reached  such  pro- 
portions as  to  demand,  it  would  seem,  some  prompt 
action.  Let  us  calmly  and  quietly  look  at  the  situa- 
tion and  consider  it  in  its  varied  relations  to  the 
future,  for  in  its  consideration  we  must  be  as  pro- 
foundly concerned  with  respect  to  the  future  of  this 
grave  question  as  we  are  with  it  as  it  pertains  to  the 
present.  It  is  a  matter  of  concern,  not  to  one  more 
than  to  all.  It  is  the  one  supreme  American  prob- 
lem the  baleful  shadow  of  which  is  thrown  toward 
the  future  of  our  prospective  civilization. 

It  is  well  known  that  there  is  a  prevailing  idea 
that  the  Negro  should  be  curtailed  in  his  develop- 
ment and  held  within  certain  bounds.  In  some  re- 


220          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

gions  this  is  a  popular  theory  concerning  our  deal- 
ing with  the  Negro.  We  may  advise,  direct,  and 
assist,  but  cannot  restrict.  This  is  in  opposition  to 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  is  destined  to  failure  no 
matter  by  whom  attempted.  In  the  very  nature  of 
the  case,  we  cannot  set  arbitrary  boundaries  to  the 
development  of  any  race  and  say  to  such  under  in- 
exorable edict — "Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no 
further."  An  effort  like  this  will  carry  with  it  its 
own  defeat  and  failure.  The  effort  will  beget  fresh 
forces  and  energies  to  its  own  undoing.  Nothing  is 
plainer  than  this  principle  in  all  the  past  of  human 
history,  and  it  is  certainly  paterlt  in  its  application 
to  the  present  juncture.  With  the  gateways  of 
opportunity  and  effort  lying  equally  open  to  all  alike, 
the  conclusion  is  apparent  that  a  race  of  people  who 
have  been  able  to  achieve  so  much  under  the  heavy 
pressure  of  difficulty,  the  constant  frown  of  opposi- 
tion, and  who  have  borne  so  successfully  against  the 
inertia  of  complicated  disadvantage,  will  accomplish 
yet  more  as  the  momentum  of  success  increases.  In 
the  face  of  this  fact  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
this  is  but  the  beginning  of  the  career  of  a  new  race 
the  accomplishments  of  which  far  exceed  those  of 
any  other  of  the  colored  races  in  America.  This 
progress  cannot  be  checked,  and  will  not.  A  suc- 
cess which  enriches  and  improves  the  country,  a 
success  which  every  one  desires  and  applauds,  will 
not  yield  to  any  interdiction  of  opposition.  While 
this  is  true,  under  present  conditions,  with  hostility 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         221 

prevailing,  this  success  is  not  without  certain  racial 
difficulties.  This,  it  would  seem,  is  a  matter  of  nec- 
essary recognition  even  to  the  most  casual  observer. 
A  summary  and  violent  disposal  of  the  race  ques- 
tion can  never  be.  It  is  idle  to  cherish  a  dream  like 
this.  Its  urgency  may  serve  the  present  purpose  of 
the  mountebank,  but  to  the  solid  citizen  it  is  the  veri- 
est fatuity.  The  question,  like  all  others,  must 
be  met  on  its  merits.  No  harsh  policy  will  avail. 
That  would  be  nothing  short  of  persecution  which 
never  fails  of  reaction.  Persecution  invariably  re- 
turns with  resounding  and  rebounding  force.  Cer- 
tainly the  Negro  situation  in  the  South  is  not  one 
which  calls  for  the  exercise  of  any  policy  which  ap- 
proaches persecution.  What  would  be  its  ground 
of  excuse?  What  has  the  Negro  done  to  invite  it? 
Must  he  be  persecuted  for  the  services  of  centuries 
rendered  as  an  enslaved  man  ?  Must  he  now  be  per- 
secuted as  a  reward  for  his  endurance  and  toil,  and 
for  his  remunerative  labor  for  generations?  Is  he 
now  to  become  a  victim  of  persecution  because  he 
served  so  well  and  so  long  in  the  development  of  the 
soils  and  mines  of  the  country?  Should  the  iron 
hand  of  persecution  now  grip  him  because  he  is 
striving  to  turn  to  practical  account  the  grim  disad- 
vantages which  meet  him  at  every  angle  of  his  strug- 
gling march  ?  Who  that  is  prepared  to  say  that  he 
must  not  develop  the  powers  of  his  efficiency  to  the 
highest  degree  possible,  especially  since  by  such  effi- 
ciency he  is  made  a  more  potent  factor  in  the  ma- 


222          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

terial  enrichment  of  the  country  ?  By  what  possible 
law,  human  or  divine,  can  this  be  done?  To  do  this 
in  republican  America  with  any  social  group,  any 
people  among  us,  would  require  a  recast  of  our  in- 
stitutions and  a  transformation  of  the  genius  of  our 
government. 

Set  the  boundaries  as  we  may  and  hedge  them 
about  as  we  please  with  arbitrary  circumscription, 
yet  so  long  as  our  system  of  government  is  flexible, 
just  so  long  will  the  superior  and  worthy  Negro 
go  beyond  them  and  find  a  niche  of  his  own  mak- 
ing, where  he  will  establish  himself,  and  com- 
mand respectful  recognition.  Nor  is  this  meant  to 
apply  to  social  relations.  The  worthy  and  respect- 
ful Negro  who  dominates  the  rest  in  thought  and 
sentiment,  entertains  no  such  vision.  They  claim 
that  it  would  be  unworthy  of  them  and  of  the  race 
to  assert  such  claim.  They  are  intent  on  erecting  a 
worthy  racial  pride,  and  insist  on  the  concentration 
of  their  people  on  this  worthy  purpose.  They  do 
ask  for  the  exercise  of  simple  justice  in  a  free  gov- 
ernment, and  for  the  consideration  due  them,  and 
because  of  this  they  should  excite  our  esteem.  Social 
equality  is  a  phantom  born  in  the  brain  of  the  racial 
hater,  and  while  it  has  been  the  occasion  of  much 
discussion,  it  has  been  found  on  investigation  to  be 
as  baseless  as  a  ghost  story.  Time  and  again,  spec- 
ters like  that  of  social  equality  and  of  Negro  ascend- 
ancy have  come  to  disturb  certain  brains,  but  on 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         223 

examination  they  have  been  found  to  be  without 
foundation. 

Every  thoughtful  man  must  know  that  if  even  a 
fraction  of  the  number  of  imaginary  bugbears  con- 
cerning the  Negro  had  ever  developed,  the  race 
would  have  long  ago  entered  on  the  pathway  of  ex- 
tinction. Nor  is  it  this  apprehension  which  deters 
the  Negro  from  such  assertion,  it  is  because  he  has 
no  such  foolish  dreams.  He  recognizes  the  fact  that 
he  must  make  for  himself  his  own  orbit  of  exist- 
ence, he  must  build  his  own  civilization  under  the 
auspices  of  an  aspiring  race,  and  to  these  ends  his 
energies  are  directed  without  disturbing  himself 
with  concerns  which  are  unpractical,  unnatural,  and 
unprofitable.  Is  it  not  true  that  as  he  proceeds  the 
phantom  of  social  equality  recedes  in  the  public 
mind?  All  along  he  has  succeeded  in  setting  over 
against  adverse  theories  concerning  himself,  facts 
of  worthiness. 

Failing  in  all  things  else,  resort  is  had  to  the  the- 
ory of  the  rapid  decline  of  the  race  as  a  possible 
fact  by  which  the  problem  will  be  eventually  solved 
and  the  land  be  rid  of  the  Negro  race.  Certain 
works  have  been  prepared  in  which  this  is  held  forth 
as  a  possible  solution.  If  a  theory  like  this  be  worthy 
of  answer,  a  sufficient  one  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
a  race  which  has  increased  almost  two  million  within 
a  single  decade  shows  but  slight  sign  of  diminution. 
It  recalls  the  incident  of  the  merchant  who  bought 


224          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

his  matches  at  five  cents  a  box  and  sold  them  at  four, 
and  when  asked  how  he  could  do  this,  replied  that 
it  would  be  impossible  did  he  not  sell  so  many! 

The  fact  that  the  Negro  is  submissive,  and  tract- 
ably accepts  the  situation — that  he  yields  at  one 
point,  only  to  come  again  at  another;  that  mean- 
while he  makes  a  place  for  himself  in  the  heaving 
and  tumultuous  world  and  occupies  it  in  thorough 
accord  with  well-defined  laws  of  human  progress; 
that  his  growth  of  efficiency  multiplies  the  spheres 
of  his  adaptation  of  the  world's  demands,  these  are 
facts  of  enormous  significance  to  which  no  thought- 
ful man  can  close  his  eyes.  That  the  Negro  by  vir- 
tue of  frugality  and  economy  logically  and  naturally 
thrives,  and  that  his  services  are  so  indispensably  in 
demand,  in  itself,  constitutes  a  fact  that  is  prodigi- 
ous if  not  portentous.  For  the  moment  forecasting 
the  future,  it  requires  no  philosopher  with  micro- 
scopic sharpsightedness  nor  seer  with  acute  dis- 
crimination to  discover  that  to  which  the  present 
will  inevitably  lead.  If  his  advancement  has  been 
so  rapid  within  the  initial  years  of  his  freedom,  in 
the  future  it  will  be  more  conspicuous.  By  reason 
of  his  well-known  characteristics  and  his  progress, 
it  may  be  concluded  that  the  darkest  days  of  the 
Negro  are  now  behind  him.  If  he  has  succeeded 
under  conditions  so  unfavorable,  where  he  has  not 
only  encountered  direct  repression,  but  has  shared  in 
all  the  disasters,  such  as  shortness  of  harvest  and 
financial  reverses,  what  may  he  not  be  expected  to 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         225 

achieve  within  the  next  generation  with  an  increased 
efficiency,  widening  observation,  ripening  experi- 
ence, and  deepening  wisdom  ?  Nor  will  this  be  done 
save  in  the  ordinary  way  in  which  he  has  already 
succeeded  as  a  planter,  home  builder,  educator,  au- 
thor, artist,  artisan,  economist,  banker,  and  pro- 
fessional man. 

The  achievements  of  the  Negro  have  been  quiet 
and  undemonstrative.  He  has  never  been  clamorous 
in  the  publication  of  his  deeds  to  the  world.  Better 
would  it  be  for  him  if  these  were  more  generally 
known.  The  worthy  ones  keep  within  themselves 
and  are  content  to  succeed  without  flaunting  the 
facts  in  the  face  of  the  public.  But  the  deeds  of 
the  unworthy  are  broadly  known  throughout  the 
land,  and  the  worthy  ones  must  needs  share  in  the 
opprobrium  because  all  happen  to  belong  to  the  same 
race.  The  progressive  ones  are  content  to  labor  on 
without  inviting  public  recognition  or  without  seek- 
ing applause.  They  have  skill  and  learning,  have 
sowed  and  reaped  prosperously,  have  directed  their 
affairs  along  legitimately  commercial  lines,  have 
quietly  built  their  homes,  schools  and  churches,  and 
established  and  maintained  remunerative  plants  of 
divers  kinds,  all  without  demonstration  and  with- 
out interference  with  the  affairs  of  the  stronger  race. 
Yea,  thousands  of  them  have  found  their  way  to  a 
goodly  degree  of  prominence  without  the  elicit  of 
local  applause,  without  recognition,  and  sometimes 
encountering  stout  opposition.  The  aggregated  re- 


226         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

suits  of  Negro  progress  are  enormous,  as  his  taxable 
property  of  $600,000,000  attests.  That  the  Negro 
by  dint  of  exertion  and  well-recognized  efficiency 
has  so  often  made  himself  indispensable,  in  a  variety 
of  spheres  for  which  he  is  so  uniquely  qualified, 
means  much  for  the  future  of  the  race.  In  some  of 
these  spheres,  because  of  his  peculiar  fitness  and 
adaptability,  he  is  preferred  above  all  others.  By 
common  consent,  any  substitute,  in  certain  spheres, 
would  be  unacceptable,  so  long  as  his  services  were 
available.  The  Negro  is  not  blind  to  these  facts 
and  opportunities,  and  is  not  slow  to  appear  on  the 
scene  at  the  proper  time  to  use  them  to  advantage. 
He  may  be  decried  and  ridiculed,  often  is ;  his  simple 
rights  may  be  questioned,  as  is  sometimes  done ;  but 
the  academic  law  of  economics — demand  and  sup- 
ply— comes  to  his  rescue,  and  the  question  is  often- 
est  settled,  not  by  the  Negro  himself,  but  by  those 
of  the  dominant  race  who  need  his  services  and  pay 
for  them. 

Notwithstanding  racial  differences  and  friction, 
it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  Negroes  and  white  men 
engaged  in  conversation  about  divers  affairs  in 
which  they  are  mutually  interested.  Who  sees 
members  of  the  white  race  chatting  with  Chinamen, 
Japanese,  Greeks  or  Italians?  There  is  nothing  in 
common  between  such,  and  there  is  nothing  to  talk 
about.  These  are  facts  of  common  observation  and 
are  not  without  credit  to  the  Negro  race  among  the 
colored  races  of  America. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         227 

Consider  another  fact  which  relates  to  the  future : 
the  indulgence  of  racial  prejudice  serves  to  hold  the 
races,  as  such,  apart,  the  logical  outcome  of  which 
is  to  discount  the  Negro  purely  on  the  basis  of  racial 
aversion.  This  naturally  leads  to  imposition  on  the 
Negro  race  and  to  the  taking  of  advantage  of  him 
by  sheer  force.  Must  it  be  suffered  to  escape  us  as  a 
prospective  fact,  and  one  that  is  inevitable,  that  in 
the  years  of  the  future,  when  the  Negro  has  become 
more  learned  and  generally  more  efficient,  with  his 
power  increased,  we  may  deplore  that  we  have  al- 
lowed the  opportunity  to  escape  for  making  him  our 
friend,  and  have  made  him  our  enemy  instead  ?  Be- 
cause of  the  pressure  of  existing  conditions,  because 
of  the  exactions  now  imposed,  he  is  steadily  engaged 
in  equipping  himself,  and  is  overcoming  the  barriers 
raised,  in  order  to  meet  the  requirement  of  the  de- 
mands imposed. 

Without  entering  the  sphere  of  politics,  save  for 
the  purpose  of  illustration,  for  politics  has  been  stu- 
diously shunned  throughout  this  discussion  for  obvi- 
ous reasons,  let  attention  be  called,  for  the  time,  to 
a  matter  of  practical  interest  alike  to  all.  The  bulk 
of  the  Negroes  is  now  practically  disfranchised  in 
a  number  of  the  states,  yet  there  are  limits  to  which 
when  he  shall  attain,  he  will  be  a  qualified  elector. 
He  has  dropped  from  view  and  is  quietly  accepting 
the  situation  and  is  fitting  himself  for  future  citizen- 
ship. When  he  shall  reach  the  gateway  of  constitu- 
tional requirement,  what  will  be  his  attitude  to  the 


228         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

white  race,  if  present  conditions  of  race  alienation 
be  suffered  to  go  on?  Shall  he  reach  this  stage  the 
friend  or  the  enemy  of  the  whites?  Shall  he  be 
permitted  to  bring  with  him  to  this  goal  a  race  hat- 
red or  a  sentiment  of  friendliness?  The  present 
purpose  is  not  to  discuss  the  restrictions  imposed  on 
the  ballot,  but  that  of  the  relation  of  the  races  in 
the  future.  Conditions  now  favor  racial  concilia- 
tion, and  shall  the  policy  be  to  continue  a  course 
by  which  the  Negro  is  estranged  or  shall  it  be  to 
make  him  the  friend  of  the  dominant  race  now,  that 
he  may  be  such  when  he  comes  to  citizenship  ?  Now, 
in  certain  quarters,  it  is  unpopular  even  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  Negro  in  a  temperate  way,  but  is  this 
the  policy  of  wisdom?  It  is  not  now  claimed  that 
the  result  will  be  as  indicated  above,  but  it  is  worthy 
of  consideration  just  at  this  time,  and  in  view  of  the 
present  drift.  If  the  Negro  be  made  our  friend 
now,  he  will  be  our  friend  then.  He  is  now  access- 
ible, pliant,  responsive.  What  assurance  have  we 
that  this  will  continue?  It  is  evident  that  a  policy 
such  as  here  advocated  will  be  for  the  good  of  both 
races  alike.  Shall  the  opportunity  be  now  slighted  ? 
It  may  be  arrogantly  said,  in  reply  to  this,  that 
this  is  a  white  man's  country,  and  that  he  has  noth- 
ing to  fear.  This  is  cheap  talk  and  cheaper  logic. 
Granting  all  that  may  be  implied  in  this  boast,  who 
wishes  to  have  in  our  midst  a  racial  hostile  minority, 
when  it  can  be  avoided?  Who  is  indifferent  to  the 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         229 

multiplied  and  manifold  complications  permitted  by 
ourselves  to  be  transmitted  to  our  children  ?  Con- 
ceding that  the  Negro  voter  of  the  future  may  be 
beaten  back,  who  is  going  to  do  the  beating?  If  he 
be  deceived,  who  is  to  practice  the  deception?  If 
he  is  to  be  held  down,  who  is  going  to. remain  down 
to  do  the  holding  ?  Does  not  this  suggest  future  fric- 
tion, and  friction  continually?  Because  one  may 
chance  to  be  physically  and  financially  stronger  than 
his  next  door  neighbor,  is  he  justified  in  the  exercise 
of  a  hectoring  spirit  which  requires  perpetual  vigi- 
lance of  a  suspicious  nature,  as  well  as  time,  energy, 
and  the  waste  of  moral  strength,  in  order  to  hold 
his  neighbor  in  abeyance  and  in  awe?  Who  that 
covets  an  existence  like  this?  Domination  and  pre- 
eminence are  of  small  worth  if  they  are  to  be  adul- 
terated with  gall  and  vinegar. 

The  Negro  is  not  without  friends  among  the  bet- 
ter whites  of  the  South,  who,  as  certain  emergencies 
have  arisen,  have  been  heard  with  effect.  The  sen- 
timent in  his  favor  is  not  of  the  maudlin  type,  but  it 
is  a  principle  as  solid  as  granite.  Nor  is  it  called 
into  exercise  because  he  is  a  Negro,  but  because  he 
is  a  man. 

Deep  in  the  noblest  type  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  char- 
acter is  the  principle  of  loyalty  to  human  oppor- 
tunity and  brotherhood,  and  in  the  states  of  the 
South  are  many  who  are. possessed  of  this  spirit. 
It  is  not  the  particular  race  which  evokes  this  spirit, 


230         THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

but  principle,  and  the  common  cause  of  humanity. 
To  this  element  of  our  chivalrous  civilization  the 
present  question  addresses  itself  with  respect  to  con- 
ditions which  now  are,  as  well  as  to  others  which  are 
liable  to  arise. 

As  the  present  writer  sees  it,  no  people  ever  enjoyed 
an  advantage  greater  than  that  which  is  now  offered 
the  white  race  in  its  relation  to  the  weaker  race  in 
these  American  states.  Leaving  out  of  view  the  un- 
questioned moral  obligations  which  arise  from  the 
past  and  which  have  already  been  emphasized,  it 
would  seem  the  dictate  of  reason  and  of  wisdom  that 
we  should  now  seek  to  make  the  most  of  the  Negro, 
both  for  his  good  as  well  as  for  our  own.  That 
there  could  now  be  easily  summoned  to  an  under- 
taking like  this  the  combined  leadership  of  the  Negro 
race  in  a  policy  of  conciliation  and  of  mutual  help- 
fulness, there  is  no  doubt,  and  that  a  course  such 
as  is  here  advocated  would  be  helpful  to  all  alike  is 
beyond  question.  Why,  then,  should  there  be  delay 
in  the  adoption  of  a  movement  which  will  rob  the 
future  of  racial  ominousness,  and  clear  the  years  to 
come  of  inevitable  difficulties  with  which  other  gen- 
erations must  grapple  ?  To  listen  to  the  hoot  of  the 
racial  hater  and  the  clatter  of  the  political  pettifog- 
ger, who  sees  no  further  than  his  own  temporary 
self-advantage,  seems  folly,  in  view  of  that  which  is 
involved  as  well  as  that  which  portends.  Could  a 
course  justified  by  conditions  well  known  be  adopted 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN         231 

for  the  relaxation  of  present  conditions,  and  could 
there  be  established  between  the  white  and  black 
races  that  which  is  friendly  and  tranquil,  there  could 
be  but  one  result.  Side  by  side  there  would  eventu- 
ally grow  up  a  dual  civilization  in  the  American 
states,  and  especially  in  those  of  the  South — one 
purely  white  American  and  the  other  Afro-Ameri- 
can. As  races  they  would  keep  within  themselves, 
founding  and  maintaining  each  its  own  interests  and 
institutions,  and  yet  in  spirit  they  would  be  com- 
bined. Each  would  be  genuinely  American,  each 
would  possess  its  own  instincts  and  racial  charac- 
teristics. While  the  races  would  not  fuse,  their  in- 
terests would  be  in  common.  That  which  would 
be  good  for  the  one,  would  be  equally  so  for  the 
other.  They  would  be  "distinct  as  the  billows,  one 
as  the  sea."  At  multiplied  points  they  would  come 
into  contact,  but  the  better  of  each  would  sedulously 
and  jealously  guard  the  boundary  of  racial  integrity. 
In  such  contact,  under  the  same  laws  and  beneath 
the  same  flag,  with  interests  identical,  harmony 
would  hold  sway  and  the  land  would  prosper. 

The  dominant  race  faces  an  opportunity  today 
which  may  decline  with  the  present  stage  of  advan- 
tage. On  this  race  is  imposed  the  duty  of  taking 
the  initial  step  toward  the  realization  of  a  condition 
which  seems  altogether  possible.  Unless  it  be  done 
by  the  stronger  race  it  cannot  be  done  at  all.  As  in 
the  future  there  shall  come  to  pass  this  dual  condi- 


232          THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

tion  of  society  in  the  American  states  shall  the  races 
be  friendly  each  to  the  other  and  work  in  adjustment 
for  the  good  of  each,  or  shall  they  be  hostile?  On 
this  question,  as  on  a  common  pivot,  turns  the  Negro 
problem  of  the  present  as  well  as  of  the  future. 


INDEX 

Advertiser,  Montgomery  (Ala.)  quoted,  47. 

Africa,  resorted  to,  29;  slave  market  of  the  world,  120;  relation 
of  American  Negro  to  future  of,  120;  possibility  of  Christian- 
ization  of,  179. 

Amalgamation  opposed  by  the  Negro,  216. 

America,  effect  of  its  discovery  on  slave  trade,  29;  Negro's  resi- 
dence in,  74. 

Apprehension  unfounded,  188 ;  unrealized,  199 ;  two  sources  of,  211. 

Andrews,  President  E.  Benj.,  quoted,  177. 

Anglo-Saxon,  achievements  of  the,  13;  obligation  of  the,  38; 
indebtedness  of  the,  62;  chief  characteristic  of  the,  79;  resorts 
to  the  Negro,  82;  progress  during  the  last  century,  114;  kindly 
disposition  of,  124;  opportunity  of  the,  179;  danger  of  self- 
discredit,  204;  present  opportunity  of,  230. 

Arabs,  as  slave  purchasers,  29. 

Arbitration  of  Ga.  E.  E.,  193. 

Aristocracy,  reassertion  of  Southern,  211  j  cause  of  its  temporary 
decline,  212. 

Attucks,  Crispus  killed  at  Boston,  74. 

Augusta  (Ga.)  Chronicle  quoted,  191. 

Banks,  Negro,  59. 

Barton,  Col.,  and  his  Negro  aid,  75. 

Barriers  to  Negro  progress,  20;  serious,  75. 

Barrow,  Chancellor  D.  C.,  alluded  to,  190. 

Birch,  Samuel,  alluded  to,  91. 

"Black  Belt,"  the,  51. 

Boston  Transcript  quoted,  192. 

Boyd,  Dr.  E.  F.,  alluded  to,  98. 

Boyd,  Dr.  E.  H.,  alluded  to,  98. 

Browning,  Mrs.  quoted,  III. 

Bryce,  Hon.  James,  quoted,  15. 

Burden,  where  it  lies,  II. 

Burke,  Edmund,  quoted,  52. 

233 


234  INDEX 

Census  of  1900,  showing  of,  186.  , 

Character,  growth  of  appreciation  of,  135;  affected  by  conduct, 
203. 

Civilization  involved,  168. 

Civil  War,  17,  23;  the  Negro  during  the,  63;  his  contribution  to 
the,  64. 

Chattanooga  (Tenn.)   Times  quoted,  191. 

Christianity,  its  duty  to  the  Negro,  84;  appealed  to,  87;  challenged 
by  a  condition,  142;  hesitation,  151;  plain  duty  of,  174; 
elevating  power,  176;  opportunity,  180;  efficacy,  217. 

Clifton  Conference,  214. 

Columbia  (S.  C.)  State  quoted,  191. 

Confederacy,  Southern  Negro  during  the  regime  of,  63;  Negro's 
relation  to,  122. 

Confidence,  the  Negro's  hope,  97. 

Constitution  (Atlanta)  quoted,  161. 

Courier-Journal,  (Louisville))  quoted,  161. 

Crime  denounced,  II;  source  of,  pointed  out,  60. 

Crisis  in  Negro's  history,  21. 

Darwin,  alluded  to,  115. 

Demagogism  and   the  Negro,   205. 

Dober,  the  Moravian  missionary  to  the  West  Indies,  145. 

Dutch  in  South  Africa,  14. 

Education  compared  with  other  questions,  145;  objection  to  Negro, 
145;  Negro  strides  in,  187;  helpfulness  of,  to  the  Negro,  202. 

Emancipation,  mistaken  view  of,  17. 

Encouragements  to  assist  the  Negro,  181;  derived  from  his  pro- 
gress, 184. 

England,  change  of  policy  of,  14;  indebtedness  to  the  American 
Negro,  83. 

Enmity,  source  of,  against  the  Negro,  22. 

Equality,  social,  a  bugbear,  104;  groundlessness  of  its  appre- 
hension, 205;  wholly  subjective,  207;  a  specter,  222;  its  reces- 
sion, 223. 

Ethiopia  alluded  to,  149;  number  of  its  people,  189. 

European  immigration,  menace  of,  109. 

Faneuil  Hall,  74. 

Fleming,  Hon.  W.  H.,  quoted,  31. 

Ft.  Sumter  alluded  to,  81. 

Galloway,  Bishop  Chas.  B.,  quoted,  188. 


INDEX  235 

Geike,  Cunningham,  D.  D.,  quoted,  91. 

Georgia  railroad  strike,  189. 

Gladstone  alluded  to,  115. 

Gospel,  its  efficacy  in  seasons  of  juncture,  85. 

Grant,  President  U.  S.,  alluded  to,  177. 

Great  Britain  abolishes  slavery,  79. 

Groves,  Junius  G.,  "the  potato  king  of  Kansas,"  98. 

Hampton  Institute  alluded  to,  201. 

Hardwick,  Hon.  T.  W.,  alluded  to,  190. 

Hartshorn,  W.  N.,  alluded  to,  214. 

Hebrew  race,  comparison  with,  26;  greatness  of,  120. 

Herbert,  Hon.  H.  A.,  alluded  to,  190. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  alluded  to,  115. 

Home,  the  Negro's  creation  of  the  idea  of,  137;  its  improvement 
and  future  promise,  138. 

Hopkins,   President   Mark,   quoted,   67. 

Howard,  Gen.   O.  O.,  alluded  to,  214. 

Illiteracy,  reduction  of,  144;  its  perils,  145. 

Indiscrimination,  unfairness  of,  20;  obscures  merit,  42;  unfor- 
tunate, 52. 

Industry,  indispensableness  of,  134. 

"Jim  Crow"  compartments,  206. 

Johnston,  Gen.  E.  D.,  alluded  to,  214. 

Justice,  slumber  of,  46;  demanded  for,  48;  denied,  72;  character 
of,  illustrated,  148. 

Land  owners,  Negro,  184. 

Leaders  Negro,  and  the  saloon,  19;  distinguished,  49;  early  de- 
velopment of,  52;  wisdom  of,  54;  merit  of,  55;  onerous  task 
of,  93. 

Lee,  Gen.,  relation  to  the  feat  of  a  Negro,  75. 

Legislation,  drastic,  its  effects,  203;  what  it  forecasts,  219. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  alluded  to,  115. 

Lovett,  Judge  Eobt.  S.,  quoted,  196. 

Lowell  quoted,  48. 

Lynching  practically  unknown  in  former  years,  153;  its  immedi- 
ate consequences,  154;  its  failure  to  accomplish  the  end  pro- 
posed, 155;  its  claims  absurd,  156;  its  assumption,  157; 
defiance  of  the  judiciary,  159;  reckless  lawlessness,  160;  illus- 
trated, 162;  injustice  shown,  163. 

Magnanimity  needed,  II. 


236  INDEX 

Marblehead  Mass.,  214. 

Massachusetts  abolishes  slavery,  79. 

Massey,  Gerald,  quoted,  94. 

Mendelssohn,   Felix,   alluded  to,   115. 

Middle  States,  indebtedness  of,  to  Negro,  66;  enjoying  the  fruits 
of  his  toil,  83. 

Moffatt,  the  missionary,  alluded  to,  169. 

Moravian  missions,  145. 

Moses  alluded  to,  90. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  quoted,  217. 

Murphy,  E.  G.,  quoted,  48;  alluded  to,  157,  158. 

National  Negro  Business  League,  a  happy  conception,  129; 
founded,  213. 

Negro,  relation  to  American  life,  12;  effect  of  aiding  him,  12; 
proposals  concerning  him,  23,  24;  his  contribution  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem,  24;  advancement  of,  25;  standard  of  com- 
parison, 27 ;  not  a  voluntary  immigrant,  29 ;  imposition  on,  32 ;  how 
he  came  to  be  in  America,  36 ;  unfairness  to,  37 ;  his  position,  40 ; 
his  disposition,  40;  mistreatment  of,  41;  North  and  South  com- 
pared, 43 ;  different  classes  of,  51 ;  unjust  discrimination  against, 
52;  varied  classes,  53;  leaders  among,  55;  struggles  after  educa- 
tion, 57,  58;  criminal  class,  59;  seen  at  his  worst,  61;  loyalty 
and  devotion,  63,  64;  indebtedness  to,  65;  treatment  during 
slavery,  66;  achievments,  69;  worthy  of  aid,  70;  in  the  Kevo- 
lution,  76;  services  during  the  Civil  War,  77;  wrangles  over 
the,  78;  characteristics  compared,  79;  why  brought  South, 
80;  labor  demanded,  82;  struggles,  85;  contribution  to  civili- 
zation, 86;  disadvantages  of,  88;  drawbacks,  89;  difficulties 
aggravated,  90;  stigma  on  the,  91;  contact  with  Anglo-Saxon, 
91;  material  progress  of,  92;  his  pluck,  92;  leaders  as 
pioneers,  93;  racial  pride  needed,  95;  mistaken  notion  con- 
cerning his  leadership,  96;  his  reliance,  96;  is  he  worth  while?, 
100;  considerations  in  favor  of,  101;  opposition  to,  102;  only 
source  of  labor,  103;  value  to  our  civilization,  105;  producer 
of  wealth,  106;  protection  to  Southern  society,  108;  advance- 
ment of,  110;  predictions  concerning  the,  111;  compared  with 
the  white  race,  112;  hidden  possibilities,  115;  religious  devo- 
tion, 116;  considerations  favorable  to  helping  the,  117;  obliga- 
tions to,  118;  his  tractableness,  119;  a  new  race,  120;  cheer- 
fulness, 121;  characteristics,  123;  courage,  125;  adjustability, 


INDEX  237 

126;  not  turbulent,  127;  awakens  esteem  by  his  worth,  129; 
obstructions,  130;  womanhood,  131;  race  patriotism,  136; 
worth  exhibited,  139;  vindication  of  worth,  140;  ridicule  of, 
147;  cruelty  to,  148;  advantage  afforded  by  his  progress,  173; 
his  responsiveness,  174;  worthy  of  encouragement,  177;  dis- 
crimination against,  178;  progress  of,  illustrated,  198;  lessons 
from  experience,  199;  challenges  by  worth,  aid  and  support, 
215;  his  philanthropy,  215;  his  place  in  American  life,  216; 
must  work  out  his  own  destiny,  217;  intent  on  preserving 
racial  pride,  222;  future  work,  223;  general  disposition,  224. 

Negro  question,  discussion  of,  9;  a  problem,  28;  dangers  of,  45. 

Negro  race,  integrity  of,  133;  its  decline  a  mistake,  223;  rapid 
advancement,  224;  quiet  and  undemonstrative,  225;  its  financial 
assets,  226. 

New  England  and  slavery,  30;  alluded  to,  66;  relation  of  to 
Southern  cotton,  80;  indebtedness  to  the  Negro,  83. 

New  Jersey  abolishes  slavery,  79. 

New  York  abolishes  slavery,  79 ;  Evening  Post  quoted,  192 ;  World 
quoted,  192;  Tribune  quoted,  193. 

Nile's  Eegister  quoted,  77. 

Nitzschamann,  the  Moravian  missionary,  alluded  to,  146. 

North,  Negro   in  the,  44. 

Paul  alluded  to,  150. 

Persecution,  221. 

Pharisaism  condemned,  150. 

Policy,   sane,  needed,  218;   mistaken,  219. 

Pennsylvania  abolishes  slavery,  80. 

Pettiford,  Dr.  W.  E.,  beginning  in  the  banking  business,  98. 

Philippines  alluded  to,  14. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  alluded  to,  115. 

Politics,  a  phase  of,  227. 

Predictions  disappointed,  197. 

Poor,  Salem,  honorable  mention  made  of,  75. 

Prejudice,  50;  or  piety,  73;  proposal  of,  117;  illustrated,  150; 
force  of,  150;  possible  consequences  of,  183;  removed  by 
worthiness,  201;  a  detriment,  227. 

Prince,  a  Negro,  captures  Gen.  Prescott,  75. 

Problem,  source  of,  28;  development  of,  34;  a  forecast  of  greater, 
45;  is  not  the  Negro's,  142;  national,  143;  gravest  before  the 
American  people,  219. 


238  INDEX 

Progress,  Negro,  illustrated,  185;  has  been  quiet,  186;  cannot 
be  checked,  220. 

Providence;  operation  of,  39;  and  history,  46;  reJition  to  the 
Negro,  86;  commits  the  Negro  to  the  care  of  the  white  race, 
149. 

Question,  race,  not  exclusively  for  the  South,  143;  cannot  be  set- 
tled by  violence,  221. 

Races,  and  issues  inseparable,  203;  the  two,  will  thrive  side  by 
side,  216;  mutual  relationship  between  the,  226;  relations 
possible  in  the  future,  228;  possible  pitfalls  between  the,  229; 
friendliness  between,  indispensable,  232. 

Eacial  antipathy,  151. 

Reconstruction  era,  horrors  of,  18;  imposition  on  the  Negro,  89; 
its  condemnation,  177. 

Repression,  effect  of,  11;   and  construction,  24. 

Revels,  Senator,  letter  of,  177. 

Rivalry,  fears  of  industrial,  baseless,  204. 

Roosevelt,  President,  alluded  to,  161. 

Salem,  Peter,  kills  Major  Pitcairn,  75. 

Saloon,  effects  of  on  the  Negro,  18. 

San  Juan  Hill,  battle  of,  125. 

Sentiment,  public,  against  the  Negro,  152;  changed  by  conditions, 
197;  efforts  to  warp,  198. 

Shaler,  Prof.  N.  S.,  quoted,  43. 

Silent  forces,  operation  of,  214. 

Slavery  discussed,  31;  effects  of,  32;  former  defense  of,  33;  its 
snares,  34;  iniquity  of,  46;  arguments  in  favor  of,  67;  indebt- 
edness to  Christianity,  84;  stigma  of,  91;  effects  of,  on  the 
race,  133. 

Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  178;  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  178. 

South,  the,  her  desolation,  143;  a  double  obligation  imposed,  144; 
what  she  has  done  for  Negro  education,  144;  cause  of  decline 
in  national  councils,  212;  society  of  the,  recognizing  necessity 
of  action,  216. 

South  Africa,  14. 

Stephens,  Hon.  Alex.  H.,  "corner  stone  speech,"  81. 

Taylor,  Rev.  Preston,  the  preacher  financier,  98. 

Tennyson,  alluded  to,  115. 

Todd,  Harry,  his  wealth,  98. 


INDEX 


239 


Tuskegee  Institute  alluded  to,  201. 

Vermont  abolishes  slavery,  79. 

Virtue  commended,  133. 

Washington,  Dr.  Booker  T.,  quoted,  44 ;  beginning  at  Tuskegee, 

97;   position  stated,  135;   quoted,  203;   founder  of  National 

Negro  Business  League,  213. 
West  Indies,  missions  in  the,  145. 
White  race,  duty  of  in  the  present  crisis,  166;   its  cooperation 

needed,  167;  beneficiary  of  Negro  labor,  172. 
Womanhood,  genuine,  hope  of  the  Negro  race,  131;  imposition  on 

Negro,  132;  safeguards  needed,  133;  influences  against,  139; 

genuine,  needed  in  present  juncture,  141. 
Year  1809,  notablenesa  of,  114. 


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